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CaPHUGHT DEPOSFR 



SUNDAY REFLECTIONS 
FOR THE CHURCH YEAR 



Sunday Reflections for 
the Church Tear 



ANNA AUSTEN McCULLOH 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



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MPANY 



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" I hope each Sunday will yield its own special 
lesson to you. Ask it. Seek it. For no strong 
desire is denied to us, and it will help you to that 
best of all habits of the soul, the finding each day 
new in the fresh discovery of the worth and 
beauty of life" 



Those who knew the writer of these pages will 
miss in them much of the glow, the force and the 
beauty they remember in her spoken word. 

From concentrated notes, jotted down before 
the wonderful talks, which those who heard ever 
remember ; from letters written hurriedly because 
the pressure of active life left little time for the 
absent ones, who yet were never forgotten ; from 
these sources we have gathered her recorded 
thoughts. ' 

Like flowers hastily pressed between the leaves 
of life, they retain little of the rich colour and 
perfume of her soul ; and yet like such flowers, 
treasured and infinitely dear, we offer them — a 
tribute to her deathless memory. 



CONTENTS 



Advent Sunday 
The Second Sunday in Advent 
The Third Sunday in Advent 
The Fourth Sunday in Advent 
Christmas Day 

The Sunday After Christmas 
Epiphany Sunday 
The First Sunday After the Epiphany 
The Second Sunday After the Epiphany 
The Third Sunday After the Epiphany 
The Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany 
The Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany 
The Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany 
Septuagesima Sunday 
Sexagesima Sunday . 
quinquagesima sunday . 
Ash Wednesday . . . 
The First Sunday in Lent 
The Second Sunday in Lent . 
The Third Sunday in Lent 
The Fourth Sunday in Lent . 
The Fifth Sunday in Lent 
The Sunday Next Before Easter 
Good Friday . 
Easter Day .... 
The First Sunday After Easter 
The Second Sunday After Easter 
The Third Sunday After Easter 
The Fourth Sunday After Easter 

9 



II 

IS 

18 

21 

24 

27 
30 

33 

36 

39 

42 

45 
48 

52 
55 
58 
61 
64 

67 
70 

73 

75 
78 
81 
84 

87 
90 

93 
96 



10 CONTENTS 

The Fifth Sunday After Easter . . 99 
The Ascension Day . . . .102 

The Sunday After Ascension Day . .105 
Whitsunday . . . . .108 

Trinity Sunday 1 1 1 

The First Sunday After Trinity . .114 
The Second Sunday After Trinity . 117 
The Third Sunday After Trinity . .120 
The Fourth Sunday After Trinity . 123 
The Fifth Sunday After Trinity . .126 
The Sixth Sunday After Trinity . .129 
The Seventh Sunday After Trinity . 132 
The Eighth Sunday After Trinity . 1 34 
The Ninth Sunday After Trinity . .136 
The Tenth Sunday After Trinity . .138 
The Eleventh Sunday After Trinity . 141 
The Twelfth Sunday After Trinity . 144 
The Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity 147 
The Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity 150 
The Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity . 152 
The Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity . 155 
The Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity 157 
The Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity . 160 
The Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity . 162 
The Twentieth Sunday After Trinity . 165 
The Twenty-first Sunday After Trinity 168 
The Twenty-second Sunday After Trin- 
ity . . . • . . .171 
The Twenty-third Sunday After Trinity 174 
The Twenty- fourth Sunday After Trin- 
ity . 176 

The Twenty-fifth Sunday After Trinity 179 



Sunday Reflections 



ADVENT SUNDAY 

Collect. Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast 
away the works of darkness, and put upon us the 
armour of light, now in the time of this mortal 
life, in which Thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit 
us in great humility ; that in the last day, when 
He shall come again in His glorious majesty to 
judge both the quick and the dead> we may rise to 
the life immortal, through Him who liveth and 
reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, now and 
ever. Amen. 

Epistle. Bora. xiii. 8. 
Gospel. St. Matthew xxi. 1. 

"Behold the King conieth unto thee." How 
great were the expectations and longings for 
that coming ! How wondrous the preparations 
for this Son of Man ! The earth made ready, 
through countless millions of geologic ages, by ice 
and fire, upheaval and flood. The mountains of 
difficulty come down, the crooked places are 
made straight. His people are chosen out, edu- 
cated and prepared through the centuries that 
through them the King might come to command 
all nations and enlighten all. This preparedness 
is part of the Advent message. 

11 



12 ADVENT SUNDAY 

But for what is our preparation ! To receive 
the light of transfiguration which we are to put 
on. The vision of revelation is all light, it is the 
manifestation of the glory of love. " Now, in the 
time of this mortal life," put on the light. Don't 
think that you are to be transfigured when you 
die. Let your life now be transfigured in His 
light. Let Him be your King. Live royally. 

To-day shall I walk with head erect and heart 
full of kindness, showing to others something of 
the goodness vouchsafed to me, or shall I dwell 
in the entanglements of inferior things? With 
what an easy air the lesser duties can be done and 
turned aside if the heart is right royal ! Live 
now, in every duty, every relation of life, that 
we may be read} r to rise to those higher glories, 
reserved for those that love Him. Putting away 
the things of darkness, and loathing them ; put- 
ting on the Lord Jesus, and radiant with His 
life. 

Oh, the great meaning of life ! The worth of its 
hours, its emptiness to so many, its frivolity to 
some, its ruin to others ! I am, as it were, ever 
sitting at the portals of young life, seeing it 
measured out in such differing quantity, accord- 
ing to the choice of the young ; for Moses' great 
word still stands — " choose." 

The lesson of the Epistle is the getting rid of 
the commercial spirit in things divine. u Owe 
no man anything." Certainly, pay your debts, 
keep honest commercially ; but there is a fulfill- 
ment of the law of the kingdom beyond this. 



ADVENT SUNDAY 13 

Owe always love ; it is ever to pay, and thus the 
whole law will be fulfilled. 

The lesson in Isaiah prophesies the breaking up 
of the old kingdom, the establishment of the 
" City of Bighteousness," the u City of the Faith- 
ful, " this City of God whose glorious vision rose 
on the soul of St. Augustine, and was dreamed by 
Dante in his Monarchia. A rule of One, under 
whom kings rule, and ministers decree justice, an 
organized, outward rule. How can we wonder 
that in a literal age, when an Origen or a 
St. Francis lived, the struggle for the supremacy 
of Church over State should arise and that the 
full force of " render to Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's and to God the things that are God's " 
should be weakened! The battle had to be 
fought in order that mankind might come to 
understand that the kingdom of Christ, while it 
has a form, is intrinsically not of this world ; that 
its citizenship is in heaven. 

The New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, 
needs no light of sun or moon. The Lord is the 
light thereof. Its doors are open day and night. 
Into it enters nothing unclean. All its members 
are clothed wdth the armour of light ; their life is 
hid with Christ in God. By the Incarnation 
assurance is given of the reality of this world of 
light and life and love ; beginning here and com- 
pleted when He shall come in His glorious 
Majesty. 



14 ADVENT SUNDAY 

Blessed Lord, give us a firm grasp on the large 
and enduring realities, a portion in the Eternal 
Years, a dwelling place in the Tabernacle not 
made with hands. Order all our life, let Thy 
tender, pitying love transfigure all our duties, and 
clothe us with the light of Thine eternal beauty. 



THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT 

Collect. Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scrip- 
tures to be written for our learning ; grant that 
we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, 
learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience 
and comfort of Thy Holy Word, we may embrace, 
and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting 
life, which Thou hast given us in our Saviour 
Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Epistle. Eom. xv. 4. 
Gospel. St. Luke xxi. 25. 

"The blessed hope of everlasting life" has 
efficacy to still the small jars, antagonisms, in- 
congruities, misapprehensions of this close pent 
up sphere of ours. It lifts our fellows into a 
larger place as well as ourselves. But how feebly 
we often grasp our best blessings and then how 
regretful we are in the retrospect ! I do not 
think this is more true in our relation to our 
dear ones who have left us than it is of the gifts 
of God to us in His life lessons : the choice of 
the current days, the riches of His word in the 
Scriptures. 

The words of Holy Writ, of the Lord, of the 
prophets whom our Lord studied and loved, what 
an illumination is about them ! How can they be 
to us other than sacred — polarized ? That illustra- 
tion helps to make us see the forces at work in 

15 



16 THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT 

the divine life as well as in the written word. 
Carbon, perfectly polarized, builds itself up into 
the diamond. In silence, in the earth's central 
heat, the crystal is formed, a thing of permanency, 
of highest beauty. So we seek our polarity. Let 
no rude shocks of circumstance shake us out of 
our highest resolves. 

Election, Salvation, are two links of a chain ; 
the middle one is u laying hold." If we can 
read the characters of God's image on our souls 
we see that they are the counterparts of the 
golden characters of His love, in which our 
names are written in the Book of Life. Make 
your calling sure, then is your election known. 

In Scripture the Spirit is not spoken of as a 
property of the soul, but with a genitive follow- 
ing : " spirit of meekness" ; or with an adjec- 
tive : " Holy Spirit" ; showing that the moral re- 
sult is the only pledge and token of His pres- 
ence. "All other consciousness is hypocrisy or 
fanatical delirium," says Leighton. And Cole- 
ridge, "the man makes the motive, not the 
motive the man." 

What determines the man ? The intelligent 
will. But what determines the will f Each seed 
brings forth its own plant, and in every soul 
works the energy, without which it is dead. 
Love empowers, Word informs, Spirit actuates 
the will. 

If any one is surprised that the Divine aid 
reaches deeper than our consciousness let him 
reflect that though we trace back to our utmost 



THE SECOND SUNDAY IK ADVENT 17 

in the search for the originating impulse of our 
will, we can never find its first footmark. 

Nihil in intellectu quod non prius in sensu, is 
irrefragable ; but there is in man something be- 
yond the intellectus — the soul, whose operations 
can neither be counted, coloured, nor delineated. 
Here Faith comes in ; here Form is a sacramental 
thing, the sign of a significant truth, yea, even 
the highest " sign of the Son of Man.' 7 

Lord, increase our Faith ; our sense of the un- 
seen, eternal realities of life. Thou dost forgive 
our sins ; Thou dost seal us with Thy Holy 
Spirit ; we come before Thee having the adop- 
tion of children ; may this spirit of adoption 
pass into our life. May the eyes of our under- 
standing be enlightened, that we may know the 
great riches of glory Thou hast in Thy saints ; 
and so may all mean fleshly desires die in us, as 
we seek to enter into the blessed company of 
Thy saints, to be in very word and deed members 
of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the 
kingdom of heaven. 



THE THIED SUNDAY IN ADVENT 

Collect. Lord Jesus Christ, who at Thy first com- 
ing didst send Thy messenger to prepare Thy way 
before Thee ; grant that the messengers and 
stewards of Thy mysteries may likewise so prepare 
Thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient 
to the wisdom of the just, that at Thy second com- 
ing to judge the world we may be found an ac- 
ceptable people in Thy sight, who livest and 
reigneth with the Father and the Holy Spirit 
ever, one God, world without end. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Cor. iv. 1. 

Gospel. St, Matt. xi. 2. 

" Go ye into all the world w was our Lord's com- 
mand, adding as in the commandments of the 
older dispensation, a promise, u Lo, I am with 
you alway." There is a great gain in the larger 
outlook on all nations as belonging to our Lord. 
The highest study of mankind is God ; the 
highest truth yet revealed to man about God 
is the Man Christ Jesus. That this revelation 
should reach all nations is the burden of Isaiah's 
prophecy, in every symbol and historical parable. 

As we enlarge our minds to these Advent 
contemplations our Christianity becomes no 
longer Puritanical or Broad or Medieval, but 
large, true, deep, and above all simple. 

18 



THE THIED SUNDAY IN ADVENT 19 

The imperfect truths of men become degraded ; 
so too has Christianity been degraded ; but 
against its great elementary truths no degrada- 
tion could come. Obscured by encrustations 
of superstition, narrow interpretation and ex- 
treme logic, still, through all heresies, despite 
persecutions unwise or cruel, and all fantastic 
excesses, the Truth of the Divine Man has 
prevailed. 

Nor is there any better way for the Church to 
keep alive the simplicity, the reality and the 
curative power of our religion than by taking it 
to the far-off peoples. Small differences fall off 
before the large, embracing truth. Eeceive the 
enlargement that comes from studying the nations 
remote to you, and the lives of those who minister 
to them. When these are great as was St. 
Columba, St. Martin of Tours, St. Patrick, St. 
Boniface, their wonderful work is easily recog- 
nized ; in our modern day Judson, Cary, Living- 
stone, Pattison, Selwyn, have left their mark on 
the century and the nations. Pray ye the Lord 
of the harvest that He send forth labourers into 
His harvest. 

In its personal application the study of the day 
speaks to us of our own preparation, made ready 
by God's ministers and stewards for that higher 
day when our Lord shall find us an acceptable 
people in His sight. 

There may not come to us a great outward era 
when millennial changes will be ushered in ; but 
we must all die, and be brought into our Lord's 



20 THE THIED SUNDAY IN ADVENT 

more immediate presence. St. Paul said " ab- 
sent from the body, present with the Lord," in 
what way we know not, except in some way more 
like Him ; "for it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be, but we know that when He shall ap- 
pear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him 
as He is." 

As we kneel before Thee, our heavenly Father, 
we would feel anew Thy peace about us. Thou 
hast brought us into the adoption of sons ; lifted 
us out of disobedience into the wisdom of Thy 
just ones. May something of Thy glory be 
about us, so that all earth's tasks may be radiant 
with it, all service be made easy by it, all aims 
uplifted. May Thy words be heard evermore, 
that though the mountains depart and the hills 
be removed Thy kindness shall not depart, nor 
the Covenant of Thy Peace be removed. Our 
frailties remain — Thy help remains. May we 
realize daily that without Thee we are not able 
to please Thee. So be evermore a daily presence 
to us, not merely a name, a doctrine, but a power 
— Christ in us, the hope of glory. Then we will 
know that all things are ours, because we are 
Christ's, and Christ is God's. 



THE FOUETH SUNDAY IN ADVENT 

Collect. O Lord, raise up, we pray Thee, Thy power 
and come among us, and with great might succour 
us ; that whereas, through our sins we are sore 
let and hindered in running the race set before us, 
Thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help 
and deliver us ; through the satisfaction of Thy 
Son our Lord, to whom, with Thee and the Holy 
Ghost be honour and glory, world without end. 
Amen. 

Epistle. Phil. iv. 4. 
Gospel. St. John i. 19. 

What a glorious thing life is ! On this jubilant 
day when the ' l rej oice- ? of the Epistle sets the key- 
note it seems so good to live ; to have "the dew 
of youth/' to " drink of the brook by the way/ 7 
and to "lift up the head continually. " Keep 
out of the arid flats ; they are never the places to 
dwell in, no matter who calls you to them. We 
were never meant for a desert life ; the desert 
should blossom as the rose ; and even when it 
seems as dry as the valley of Baca, it may be 
filled with pools of water, limpid, beautiful, re- 
flecting the blue of heaven. The hot breezes 
may not yet have blown about your life, never- 
theless have the habit now of coming to the 
fountain of living waters. 

21 



22 THE FOUETH SUNDAY IN ADVENT 

" Lo your redemption draweth nigh ! ' ' In the 
fullness of time, Jesus, Son of Man, is eonie. 
Isaiah foresaw Him more nearly than any of the 
old seers, but though each of the prophets saw 
something of His full humanity, not even John 
the Baptist had the yearning tenderness of the 
Saviour. John cried repentance only — reforma- 
tion. One cannot imagine him eating with publi- 
cans and sinners, for a certain separation must be 
maintained by the reformer. The hermit prophet 
always arises when the world grows callous, or 
the Church corrupt. But the Good Shepherd is 
known and loved of His own ; they, following 
Him, are ready to be baptized with His suffering. 

The sin of the world was the source of our 
Lord's suffering ; the Cross the measure of sin. 
There is much talk about the " Puritan con- 
science/' that u awful sense of guilt." Can any 
sense of guilt be too great, if we hold fast the 
truth of God's forgiveness, His willingness to 
cleanse and receive us, to speak peace to us, if 
we repent, and hate the evil ? This double sense 
of the call to holiness, and the difficulty of meet- 
ing it without God's great might, is the thought 
of the Collect of the day. Eemember we do not 
look for redemption unless we have something 
of an exile feeling. That is not a morbid feeling, 
it is only the due sense of that eternal life, which 
we "embrace and hold fast.". The closeness of 
the spiritual tie exceeds in power the natural. 
Not weakening the claims of life's duties, or rob- 
bing it of its sweetness, but dominating all in 



THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT 23 

superior spiritual force. To him who runs a 
race the thought of the goal is ever present ; so, 
though hindered, we are always helped ; though 
we strive our utmost in the race and the fight, 
our hearts are given to the peace that passeth 
understanding. 

Almighty God, we thank Thee for the bless- 
ings of the past, the hopes of the future. Not 
always have we been thankful, never have we 
been worthy of Thy great goodness. The things 
which Thou hast denied us we have often longed 
for ; what Thou hast given us we have often mis- 
used. 

Create and make in us new and contrite hearts. 
May the work Thou hast given us be glorified by 
love to Thee ; the trials which Thou shalt ap- 
point be borne by us as Thy gracious chastening, 
working in us the fruits of righteousness. The 
guiding of the Star brought the wise men of old 
to the Light of Life, hidden in a manger. They 
found One who made Himself of no reputation, 
and took upon Himself the form of a servant, 
and became obedient unto death. So may no 
place be too humble, no duty too small for us to 
feel that in it we may follow Him. 

Be with us unto the end — even as our faith is in 
Thee. 



CHEISTMAS DAY 

Collect. Almighty God, who hast given us Thy only- 
begotten Son to take our nature upon Him, and 
as at this time to be born of a pure virgin ; 
grant that we being regenerate, and made Thy 
children by adoption and grace, may daily be 
renewed by Thy Holy Spirit through the same 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and r eigne th 
with Thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, 
world without end. Amen. 

Epistle. Heb. i. 1. 
Gospel. St. John i. 1. 

The King comes in His majesty, scattering 
largess — His great supernatural gifts; coming 
that we might be assured of the source of these 
great gifts, that we might love Him personally, 
might no longer be as sheep, shepherdless. The 
reality of God's presence, the certainty of His 
unfailing help, His forgiving and transforming 
love are made known to man, for the Word be- 
comes flesh. "We have seen and do testify, " 
says John, and the history of near two thousand 
years bears witness. 

Who are we, in our undesert, that we should 
question Him whose goings forth are from ever- 
lasting ; He whose will is our good, if we love 
Him — a love that proves we are u called accord- 
ing to His purpose. " 

24 



CHRISTMAS DAY 25 

Oh, the great difference between fatalism and 
this predestination of love, the personal ordering 
of a Father, whose children are known unto Him 
from the beginning ! u In the volume of the book 
it is written of me ; that I should do Thy will, 
O God. " His will ; yes, this is the secret of 
happiness ; the obedience of a perfect trust, the 
search for the guiding hand, the firm clasp — 
" apprehending that for which we are appre- 
hended." 

To-day we realize anew what it is to be thus 
allied to God, and not to the brute in us ; to 
realize that in striving we seek to perfect this 
image of God in which we were made. How 
poor and ignoble seem our lives beside this call, 
the privilege of our daily renewal by the Holy 
Spirit. 

Our Lord's perpetual question to us is not 
where are we, but what are we ! Salvation con- 
sists in being saved from ourselves ; from our 
petty meannesses and vanities and hates and lusts 
— to find our life in Him. Then man as man be- 
comes sacred to us, and we love our fellows be- 
cause He dwelt among them, laid His holy hand 
upon them, and they, "the least of these, " stand 
in the glow of His love. 

Some of this glory will be reflected on our 
faces also. I know there is a great difference 
between a natural gift and a cultivated grace, but 
still I contend that the sons of God when true to 
their high vocation are clad in charm. I would 
not drag down lofty character to the measure of 



26 CHKISTMAS DAY 

a manner, or assert that unagreeable people are 
not sometimes saintly ; but it seems to me that 
dullness, eaptiousness, sourness, dryness, or an 
unsympathetic manner comes from not having 
received the true ideal in the mind. How strik- 
ingly the Christmas Psalms lift the mind to high 
considerations which inevitably control the bear- 
ing ! "A converted soul, a rejoicing heart, " 
a wisdom that is large, a perception that is en- 
lightened. Shall any one say such a being can 
be repulsive, even unagreeable ? 

The Epistle and Gospel for the day are set in a 
key lofty and sublime. " Thou in the beginning 
hast laid the foundations of the earth . . . 
they shall perish. . . . Thou remainest. . . . 
The glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth." 

Nature is as much God's as is the Gospel ; 
otherwise we surrender it to the materialist and 
play into the unbeliever's hand. It is the joy of 
our Christian position that we can greet with 
fearless gratitude every fact that human knowlege 
discovers ; that we stand not with the Positivist 
in a truncated universe, with nothing visible 
above the level of our heads, but discerning 
clearly more wealth of life above us towards God 
than below us towards the germ cell. This joy 
no discoveries in the physical world can take 
from us : the Lawgiver being one. 



THE SUNDAY AFTEE CHRISTMAS 

Collect. Almighty God, zvho hast given us Thy only- 
begotten Son to take our nature upon Him, and 
as at this time to be born of a pure virgin ; 
grant that we being regenerate, and made Thy 
children by adoption and grace, may daily be re- 
newed by Thy Holy Spirit ; through the same 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth 
with Thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, 
world without end. Amen, 

Epistle. Gal. iv. 1. 
Gospel. St. Matt. i. 18. 

This is the "Abba, Father " Sunday, the coro- 
nation of life as " Sons of God." The world has 
been prepared, educated towards the Incarnation. 
First under bondage to the "elements of the 
world ?? — more or less of ceremonial worship, of 
outward gifts, prosperities and rewards. 

Now Sonship is developed, or evolved, as you 
choose to phrase it. The whole creation having 
groaned and travailed in pain until this manifes- 
tation of the Son of God. 

No more working for outward rewards, al- 
though they are often the accompaniments. The 
music of the soul is independent of them. The 
spirit of the son is not the spirit of the servant 
looking to his wage ; it is an offering of love, as 
was His, who had not where to lay His head, 

27 



28 THE SUNDAY AFTEE CHEISTMAS 

who was as a root out of a dry ground, who bore 
our sorrows. A son, but a son among many 
brethren ; an heir of God, and, through Him, we 
are made heirs ; we are the mystical Body, claim- 
ing His Sonship. 

The Gospel centres around the name of Christ. 
" Jesus— for He shall save His people from their 
sins. 77 "For it became Him, for whom are all 
things and by whom are all things, in bringing 
many sons to glory, to make the captain of their 
salvation perfect through sufferings. 77 So these 
apostles, the first of many brethren, suffered as 
witnesses to their Lord ; "for which cause He is 
not ashamed to call them brethren. 77 

Before we go to our rest on this Thy Holy Day, 
we would offer up our thanksgiving for its les- 
sons, its warnings and its promises. May our 
hearts be receptive of Thy Word ; that it may 
dwell within us, grow within us, and bring forth 
fruit in our life. Deepen in us the feeling of Thy 
presence, Thine aid, Thy love and our great 
need. May we find the true sources of joy in 
love, trust, knowledge and insight — gifts of a lov- 
ing Father to whom we give an account. 

So may life become to us the good and fruitful 
ground that bringeth forth increase. Help us to 
welcome the days as giving us opportunity to 
serve, if only by waiting on Thy holy will in suf- 
fering affliction, or purifying pain, when we are 
tried as gold is tried. 



THE SUXDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 29 

May the spirit of a Holy Coinniunion be ours, 
built up together, into a living temple, members 
oue of another, each one sustaining the other, no 
one living to himself. So let Thy word abide in 
us forevermore and bring forth those good works 
which Thou hast ordained in us. 



EPIPHANY SUNDAY 

Collect. God, who by the leading of a star didst 
manifest Thy only begotten Son to the Gentiles ; 
mercifully grant that we, who know Thee now 
by faith, may after this life have the fruition of 
Thy glorious Godhead ; through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Eph. iii. 1. 

Gospel. St. Matt. ii. 1. 

The Epiphany glory ! May it shine ever 
brightly upon you and cause you to shine. I 
cannot think of a good life that has not some of 
this radiancy about it, surely felt by the out- 
sider, some evidence of that new life that springs 
out of victory over one's lower self, the persistent 
self that lies about us like clouds on a gray day. 
As the wise men journeyed towards the star we 
turn our faces towards that light " that never was 
on sea or land," and yet is such real light — the 
light of all our guiding. That radiancy of ex- 
pression has been called the ' ' solar look. ? ' It- 
is a wholly incontrovertible fact that an earthly 
look comes from an earthly mood, and a solar 
look from an uplifted mood. Activity in the up- 
per zones of feeling is what causes the light in 
our little experience of it. Matthew Arnold, 
Stuart Mill, all ranks of scholars believe in self- 
culture ; but there is only one form of culture 
that gives supremacy, and the " solar ' ' look ; 

30 



EPIPHAXY SUXDAY 31 

that is the keeping alive in the soul the Light that 
lighteth every man that conieth into the world, 
which u shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day.-' This look is only possible when there 
exists in the soul glad self-surrender to the utter- 
most Holiest of conscience. In that Holiest is 
the Divine Omnipresence. These are spiritual 
facts, not sentiments. 

Epiphany Sunday shows us the wideness of 
God's revelation and at the same time the depth 
of His mysteries. St. Paul's desire is that all 
men might see — what ? ultimate truth ? "Who is 
ready for that blinding glory? Xo, "that all 
men may see the fellowship of the mystery." 
Great is the mystery of godliness ! Trinity, Ee- 
demption, Atonement are big truths, variously 
revealed all down the ages. Too strict a defini- 
tion limits the sense of these, creates division, 
narrows the mind. Heresies seem of this nature ; 
an effort exactly to define a large infinite truth, 
which has been variously revealed at different 
times, under changing forms, and crystallize it 
in terms of one scholastic doctrine or system, 
as Calvin's or Swedenborg's. 

At the opposite pole of thought we find Huxley 
fallen into " that abyss of thinking " where he is 
trying to steady himself on the " solidity of an 
atom." Xo one by thinking can find out God, 
but the heart of man is ever seeking Him, and 
no denials can crush out the longing ; in every 
age through faith men have received an answer 
to their crv. It matters not to faith how His lit- 



32 EPIPHAXY SUNDAY 

tie planet was prepared, only that in His book our 
members were ail written while as yet there were 
none of them. When time is ripe the " candle of 
the Lord ?? — conscience — is lit in man. Thus is 
he formed u in the image of God, " and towards 
the perfecting of that likeness the whole moral 
force of the world is set. One nation is found, in 
its great man Abraham, fitted for the presenta- 
tion of truth amid superstition and earthliness. 
In that nation, as the leader of conduct, the guide 
of righteousness, preserver of the knowledge of 
the one, true God, is found the further revelation 
— the God-Man, who becomes the centre of life, 
the beginning of the finished mystical Body, the 
glorified humanity, the perfect Pattern. 

Our Father, Father of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, as we kneel before Thee may we be 
filled with the desire to know Thee, God of Glory. 
Eeveal in some measure Thy divine majesty unto 
us, shining upon us in the face of Thy beloved 
Son, showing us Thy pitying, yearning love. 
Thou, O Blessed Jesus, dost call us each one by 
name ; may we realize this close, personal rela- 
tion to Thee ; that the sense of Thy presence, full 
and glowing, may make earthly desires grow 
dim. Let this ever closer Communion be the 
richest reward of our life, turning all its water 
into wine, all its weariness into rest, its privations 
into fullness of trust. As did Thy servant of old, 
may we hear Thee say, "I am thy shield, and 
thine exceeding great reward." 



THE FIKST ST7XDAY AFTEE THE 
EPIPHANY 

Collect. Lord, we beseech Thee mercifully to receive 
the prayers of Thy people who call upon Thee ; 
and grant that they may both perceive and know 
what things they ought to do, and also may have 
grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same ; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle. Bora. xii. 1. 
Gospel. St. Luke ii. 41. 

"What things we ought to do." That sen- 
tence from the Collect seems the theme for the 
day, elaborated in the Epistle, and culminating 
in the Gospel where the young Christ says, "I 
must be about My Father's business. " 

The question is what shall we do that we may 
work the works of God ? Most of our work is 
done among our fellows, towards them, to them ; 
that is a large part of life, and doing it we can 
"grow in wisdom and stature and in favour with 
God and man.'' But the work of God is also 
done in silence with God, towards God. The 
same God who spoke with Moses, talked with 
Abraham, and was heard of Elijah in the silence 
— "the still, small voice. " We put Him off at a 
distance. We think of Him as the God of the 
men of old ; the circumstances, the externals of life 
change ; the hurry of our age and the press of af- 

33 " 



34 FIEST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY 

fairs make very difficult to us that silence and 
meditation which are indispensable to the soul. 
It is only in silence, in a quiet still hour, that we 
can gather up the true divine forces ; for there lie 
the reservoirs of faith, evidenced in the unseen. 
We must have time to attain the consciousness of 
the nearness of Christ, silence in which to hear 
His voice. The young think they cannot find 
these quiet places. Say rather they will not. 
The stir of young blood, eager demands of the 
flesh are against it, is true ; but when and how 
are the habits of the soul to be formed ? Will 
they spring fresh in a moment, in sorrow, in sick- 
ness, in trouble ? Can an artisan do in a moment 
what he has never learned to do ! or can you 
write, remember, think in untried directions ? 
Should this work of Faith be considered easier ? 
Faith — which is the tension of the highest faculty 
of the soul ! 

How many moments of the waking day do you 
give to this work of Faith ! You say you try to 
make faith the underlying force of your life, 
conduct, words and feeling. But did you adjust 
your spiritual battery, the soul dynamics, I might 
call it? Not amid the tumult of the world's 
voices is this ever done. In the quiet hour, taken 
as a sacred thing from the conflicting claims of 
life, we find l i the Lord is nigh unto all them that 
call upon Him in truth. " 

My friend may make my life delightful with 
comfort, beauty, and the fragrance of flowers ; 
but if I pay no regard to him, am not conscious 



FIEST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHAXY 35 

of his presence, I receive only the material bless- 
ing. So with our Father. His rain, His sun 
comes to the just and the unjust; but the spir- 
itual blessing rests only on those who commune 
with Him, are conscious of His presence. To 
them cometh His salvation. 

Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who hast revealed Thyself unto us in love, 
in an infinite compassion and tenderness, give us 
grace to draw near to Thee in fervent thanksgiv- 
ing and in deep sense of need, desiring ardently 
to know more and more of that love which pass- 
eth knowledge. 

Blessed Jesus, who didst bear our humanity, 
may we ever seek to become more like Thee in 
bearing our portion of life's labours, life's pains 
and privations. Let Thy blessed words live 
within us, quickening us to all good works, all 
self-denials, that we may seek to be pure even as 
Thou art pure ; so may we come to that heavenly 
kingdom where we shall be like Thee, seeing 
Thee as Thou art. 



THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE 
EPIPHANY 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who dost gov- 
em all things in heaven and earth ; mercifully 
hear the supplications of Thy people, and grant 
us Thy peace all the days of our life ; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Eom. xii. 6. 
Gospel. St. John ii. 1. 

We come to the culmination of these three 
weeks since Christmas in the Sunday of peace, 
when all life's water is made wine, and we meet 
the blessed assurance that the last will be best. 
There was an old idea that wine improved in 
quality from being repeatedly carried " over the 
line. 77 So it is that the tossings, the tempests, 
the journey ings in experience enrich the wine of 
life which God gives in His bounty, our best 
stimulus and joy. 

He who governs all things in heaven and earth 
has put an intimate correspondence between the 
outer life and the inner beauty. The order, the 
manifold variety of our dwelling place of earth 
tells me of the Land that is afar off, where the 
King in His beauty dwells ; and my heart leaps 
up at the hints of such largeness there to all who 
have filled up the measure appointed here — faith- 
ful in little, ruler over much. 

36 



3EC0XD SUNDAY AFTEE EPIPHAXY 37 

How could I enjoy the hope of these great and 
precious promises did I not remember the merci- 
ful Love that looks on my feeble intermittent ef- 
forts, while I am faithful in desire and endeavour, 
and accepts them in the Beloved ! 

^Yhat is the Peace of God ! It is to enter into 
the eternal Xow, where we commune with Him 
who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 

There is the eternal youth of the spirit, ob- 
scured often to the perceptions by the dullness of 
the flesh, yet seen and known by the soul within 
this earthly house of our tabernacle. Youth — yes 
— gladness, eyes bright with health and joy, 
while the life within, united to the Divine, grows 
and glows, inspired by the ever widening revela- 
tion of God within us. There, rooted and 
grounded, we grow to the character pictured in 
the Epistle, perfect human sanity, abundant life. 

Blessed Jesus, whom have we in heaven but 
Thee ? There is none on earth we desire in com- 
parison of Thee. Thou wast acquainted with 
grief, and yet Thou didst leave us Thy joy, Thou 
didst give us Thy peace. Help us to welcome the 
toils, the deprivations, the sufferings, the sorrows 
Thou dost appoint us, and glorify the cross Thou 
dost lay upou us. Redeeming the time may we 
fill every waking hour with faithful duty, well 
ordered service, and find it the sacrifice Thou 
hast provided. 

Strip us, O Lord, of every proud thought. 



38 SECOXD SUKDAY AFTEE EPIPHANY 

Fill us with patient tenderness for others, ever 
ready to help, quick to forgive. In each hour of 
our daily life may we seek to be obedient to the 
heavenly vision, and so have a constant sense of 
divine realities behind the changes of time, and 
the delusions of sense. 

So abiding in the sanctuary of Thy love we 
may be fitted for the duties of the day, and be 
given the victory that overcometh the world. 



THE THIED SUNDAY AFTEE THE 
EPIPHANY 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully 
look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers 
and necessities stretch forth Thy right hand to 
help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Eom. xii. 16. 
Gospel. St. Matt. viii. 1. 

This Sunday presents to our view the Great 
Physician. It makes us see how He stands 
yearning to heal the soul, by the tenderness with 
which He heals the body. "I will, be thou 
clean." We are so dull, so hard of heart, so 
addicted to the sight of bodily eyes ! The faith 
of the old Eoinan needed not the Master's bodily 
presence, but would have His power reach over 
the intervening space. This faith w T as above 
that of Israel. 

Yea, truly. They shall come from the East 
and from the "West, and the children of the 
kingdom shall be cast out. How few of us are 
truly in u the Faith " ! The body is the vehicle 
to the soul of the Faith symbol ; but the soul 
must receive. And to receive help "in all our 
infirmities and necessities" we must know what 
they are. The Laodicean Church knew not that 

39 



40 THIED SUNDAY AFTEE EPIPHANY 

she was poor and naked and blind. "When she 
recognized her need she would listen to counsel to 
buy food and clothing. The leper knew wherein 
his health lay, and he knew that divine power to 
help existed — "If Thou wilt Thou canst make 
me clean." Giving ourselves up to the ultimate 
Power, this is Faith ; in accepting, in enduring, 
in going forward. 

The excellency of the power is in Christ. 
May we so feel it, more and more, studying His 
divine life until we become changed to the same 
image. As trouble comes, and the dying of the 
Lord is borne again in our body, may His life 
become the more manifest ; till we cry out with 
His servant of old, "O Lord, by these things 
men live, in them is the life of the spirit." 

Merciful and gracious Father, suffer not the 
god of this world to blind our minds to the 
glorious Gospel of Christ, the image of God. 
May we evermore seek to see it — this Image of 
God, — who made us to be conformed to His like- 
ness in the face of Jesus Christ. May the far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory be- 
come a Vision to us, as it is the realized posses- 
sion of Thy saints, who look not at the things 
which are seen but at the things which are 
eternal. 

This inner sense of the Eternal Years — for this 
we pray ; that life may gain by it purpose, fixed- 
ness, resolve. Under all the chances and changes 



THIED SUNDAY AFTEE EPIPHANY 41 

of things temporal, may this true joy be ours. 
Then all noble feelings will be worth while, all 
unselfish actions true ; all good works a delight. 
"We thank Thee for to-day ; may the coming 
week be bright with its light, filled with its 
power. 



THE FOUETH SUNDAY AFTER THE 
EPIPHANY 

Collect. O God, who knowest us to be set in the 
midst of so many and great dangers, that by rea- 
son of the frailty of our nature we cannot always 
stand upright ; grant to us such strength and 
protection y as may support us in all dangers, and 
carry us through all temptation through Jesus 
Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle. Roixl. xiii. 1. 

Gospel. St. Matt. viii. 23. 

Yes, we are "set in the midst of many and 
great dangers/' and so we pray for strength 
and protection : strength ardently to desire 
guidance, fervently to seek it, even as the 
disciples sought their Lord when the winds and 
the waves were raging about them. Enter into 
that peace which the disciples felt, when in awe 
they whispered u even the winds and the sea 
obey Him." As Pythagoras heard the music of 
the spheres, let us recognize the harmony in 
God's creation. The sons of God shout together 
for joy over a governed world, a world protected 
from its own possibilities of chaotic confusion 
and disorder, by the divine appointments ; as 
the sun is made to rule the earth, drawing it into 
its orbit by restraining power. 

42 



FOTJETH SUNDAY AFTEK EPIPHANY 43 

What a picture of anarchy we see in the 
country of the Gergesenes ! Souls given over to 
the powers of evil, powers that are ever ready to 
whirl us away into misrule. Shall we not ask 
ourselves, are we also " pig-headed, " as we 
watch the swine running violently down a steep 
place into the sea ? 

The man who feels sufficient unto himself, in 
the sense of being without rule and law, is in 
chaos. When perturbations arise in us, such as 
the course of this world- s affairs, or our own 
diseased conditions often bring, then let us not 
seek to guide ourselves ; but in childlike sim- 
plicity own that we cannot stand upright, and 
seek the Hand that lays the storm, and bids the 
waves be still. Let us not try to get put into 
wider cycles of thought, struggling to understand 
all things ; but instead, submit ourselves, in our 
deepest, inmost consciousness, to our Protector; 
so passing out from, that " secret place of the 
Most High n we can turn to the nearest duty, 
study the given lesson, and walk in peace the 
appointed way. 

Blessed Jesus, Great Shepherd of the sheep, 
Thou dost call each one of us by name into 
Thy fold. May we hear Thy voice and be 
led by Thee into the green pastures, and by the 
still waters ; so may our souls be continually re- 
freshed. TTe are weak and wandering, teach us 
to abide in the quiet resting-places of Thy love, 



44 FOUETH SUNDAY AFTEE EPIPHANY 

where we may hide us from the strife of tongues 
and the pride of man. So abiding, may earthli- 
ness grow less, frivolity be rebuked, ignoble ease 
disappear, low aims be forsaken, selfishness be 
overcome, and the life hid with Christ in God be 
known to us. We thank Thee for Thy great 
gifts, treasures we may not lose, though all 
earthly things grow dim and dark and un- 
certain. Give to us the great gift of persever- 
ance, to continue in the ways of Thy laws and in 
the works of Thy commandments. May we know 
as an ever present delight — prayer, praise and 
thanksgiving, and learn to wait and watch, until 
Thou shalt come to call us to the many Mansions 
prepared for those who love Thee. 



THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEE THE 
EPIPHANY 

Collect. Lordy we beseech Thee to keep Thy Church 
and household continually in Thy true religion ; 
that they who do lean only upon the hope of Thy 
heavenly grace may evermore be defended by Thy 
mighty power ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Epistle. Col. iii. 12. 
Gospel. St. Matt. xiii. 24. 

The Sunday of true religion ; in which the 
household is taught to lean upon God's heavenly- 
grace. Notice the beauty of the investiture St. 
Paul enumerates in the E£>istle. The clothing 
of the spirit is " mercy, kindness, humbleness 
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forgiveness," 
and for a girdle, " the bond of love." Truly the 
robes of righteousness foreseen by Isaiah in the 
first lesson for to-day. So, clothed in the s -gar- 
ments of salvation " we sit at the banquet of the 
Most High, in that glad, full and free life which 
true religion gives. How fit that we should 
"sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord." 
As the prophet said, { ' we eat the riches of the 
Gentiles." For us Plato taught and Phidias 
wrought, and Homer sung ; for us Epaminondas 
swept the streets of Thebes, and Leonidas fell at 
Thermopylae. We inherit it all — "upon whom 
the ends of the world have come." 

45 



46 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEK EPIPHANY 

Sufferings and tribulations instead of being 
discouragements and making life not worth liv- 
ing, are seen to be the coronation of life. For 
all our struggles are but preparations for some- 
thing higher, and that higher thing is of the 
nature of what is already achieved in us. The 
child's lungs are prepared to breathe the air be- 
fore it is brought into the world. The doing of a 
duty is the preparation for doing the next harder 
and higher duty. So in childhood we learn to 
discipline sense, that in youth the power of the 
senses be not too strong. In youth by self- 
restraint we store up vigour for middle life. In 
middle age we obtain detachment from the uses 
of this life, by seeing how imperfect are its re- 
sults : and learn patiently to abide the Lord's 
time, and be willing to work in His way : nut 
always seeing results, but sure that He is ac- 
complishing His plan. To say ••Thou wilt per- 
form the cause I have in hand, ' ' is the achievement 
of middle life. And then comes the rest of age ; 
the patient waiting for the change into a different 
sphere of work — into a greater mystery. The 
struggle with the tares is well-nigh over : the 
grain of God has preserved the divine type, how- 
ever imperfectly, and "He gathers the wheat in 
His barn." 

Before we go to our rest, we would bow our 
knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEB EPIPHANY 47 

is named : that He would grant us, according to 
the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with 
might by His spirit in our inner man : that Christ 
may dwell in our hearts by faith, that we, being 
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to 
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth 
and length and depth and height, and to know 
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge ; 
that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. 
Grant us this night refreshing sleep, and on 
the morrow such constant abiding within us of 
the Word of God vouchsafed to us this day, as 
may lead us to do all things, whatsoever we do, 
in the name of the Lord Jesus, 



THE SIXTH STJXDAT AFTEK THE 
EPIPHANY 

Collect. God, whose blessed Son was manifested that 
He might destroy the works of the devil, and 
make us the sons of God, and heirs of eternal 
life ; grant us, we beseech Thee, that, having 
this hope , we may purify ourselves, even as He is 
pure ; that, when He shall appear again with 
power and great glory, we may be made like 
unto Him in His eternal and glorious kingdom ; 
where with Thee, O Father, and Thee, O Holy 
Ghost, He liveth and reigneth, ever one God, 
world without end. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 St. John iii. 1. 

Gospel. St. Matt. xxiv. 23. 

On this Sunday we are called to realize the 
individuality of every soul, while we still enter 
the vision of the future of the whole human race. 

Called by love to be a son of God and heir 
of eternal life, the soul is purified from evil by 
this divine hope ; we know not what we shall 
be, but we know that when Christ shall appear 
in glory they that are like Him shall be gathered 
together, the harvest of time, the fruit of evolu- 
tion, the final perseverance of the saints. 

Among the individualists Calvin has done 
much in calling the Church back to a neglected 
view of truth. Brunetaire says of him, u Calvin 

48 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTEE EPIPHANY 49 

intellectualized, he aristocratized, he individual- 
ized the religion of Christ ; and for his great 
services should almost be forgiven his heresies." 
Calvin taught that we are not saved as members 
of a corporation though we call it the Church ; 
the regeneration is of the individual soul 5 I must 
be born again; justification comes by my faith , 
not by union with a visible body, or by the 
denial of natural instincts ; vital union with God 
comes only from devout personal surrender. 

Huxley, materialist as he was, is constrained 
to say the world is more advanced by great men 
than by great discoveries in science, or achieve- 
ments in art. Such men are the aristocrats of 
humanity, the elect, the predestined, whose final 
perseverance must be. There will never be a 
dead level of humanity, morally or spiritually, 
but always an election of grace. 

Catholic thought includes the individual but 
transcends him. 

Kicld, in his book, "Western Civilization/' 
calls the subjection of the present to the future 
of the race "Projected Efficiency." Every de- 
velopment of national life, says he, has left its 
residuum for the growth of humanity. In so far 
then as present things minister to true principles, 
they are to be accepted. They are not to be pro- 
moted simply for utilitarian purposes for the es- 
tablishment of a perfect present, but in transition 
to something better. Aim at the highest, even 
at risk of present pain, and, it may be, of seem- 
ing failure. Don't be afraid of Quixotism, so 



50 SIXTH SUXDAY AFTEE EPIPHANY 

called. Sancho Panza's nag must always ride 
behind Eosinante. For loftiness and nobility of 
purpose must outrank schemes for worldly gain. 
even unto the end. The constitution of the world 
so requires it. It is God's world — "groaning 
and travailing together in pain — waiting its re- 
demption/' 

What a call this is to holy living ! To be 
members incorporate in the Church, which is 
precious in His sight, honourable, loved by the 
Most High. u Therefore will I give men for 
thee, and people for thy life.- ' How much has 
been given in the past to preserve the Church's 
purity, its perpetual reformation ! The civiliza- 
tion of the Eoman world for its outward estab- 
lishment ; the blood of nation after nation to 
make way for its spread : the overturning* of the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for its quicken- 
ing ; and always the lives of its devoted servants. 
missionaries, and martyrs. 

Shall we despise our heritage ! Shall we 
mourn over our day as if it were not the heir of 
the days of pain and anguish that are past • As 
if it were not also a prisoner of hope, struggling 
towards the brighter day. the fuller liberty, the 
manifestation of the sons of God ! 

Oh, Lord and Giver of life, bowed down with 
a sense of our own insufficiency, our earthliness. 
the power of our passions, the enticements of the 
world — we come to Thee. 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY 51 

Thou hast revealed Thyself in Christ Jesus, 
and called us to Thyself by His redeeming love. 
Grant unto us all a listening heart ; that the din 
of lower strifes and passing interests may never 
dull our ears to the heavenly call, nor blind our 
eyes to the heavenly vision. 

Let no outer observances hide from us that 
kingdom of heaven which is within us ; no dis- 
tracting voices of men confuse us ; but fixing our 
eyes on the vision of the Lord of Glory, may we 
become transformed into the same image as from 
glory to glory. In that light may the lines of 
our earthly work lie before us, and all the fruits 
of holiness grow in its warmth, 

So give us to abide in Him, until we rise to the 
life immortal, and see Him as He is. 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY 

Collect. Lord, we beseech Thee favourably to hear 
the prayers of Thy people that we, who are justly 
punished for our offenses, may be mercifully de- 
livered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy 
name ; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who 
liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy 
Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Cor. ix. 24. 

Gospel. St. Matt. xx. 1. 

These preparatory Sundays express the spirit 
of Lent. Each one brings us up sharply con- 
cerning some pet indulgence or infirmity. To- 
day we are taught that coveting the prizes of life 
and making them the mainspring of our action 
will surely, surely give us that " evil eye," 
agaiust which the parable of the labourers was 
told. Above that scramble for earth's prizes 
comes the trumpet note, "For the glory of Thy 
great name," Heroic men of all ages have heard 
it, but Christianity calls all men to this high 
mark. What was once attained by the few, now 
all are to strive for — this lofty conception of duty 
— the spriug of all righteousness, since He is 
" the Lord our righteousness." Not in our own 
strength, but like the little child doing its simple 
task with all its might and loving energy, we are 

52 



SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY 53 

" accepted in the Beloved." The significance is 
in the u personal equation," not in the amount 
done ; in the motive that inspires it, and the good 
will put into it. The worker in the vineyard 
taken in at the eleventh hour, who made no bar- 
gain, trusting the master to be just, and gave his 
whole time earnestly after he was called, had ac- 
ceptance ; the men who only worked for gain re- 
ceived a reproof with their hire. 

Look at the Pharisee our Lord condemned. 
He is sanctimony itself. He really fasts twice a 
week ; he really studies the prophets, writes their 
sayings on his phylacteries ; gives half his goods 
to feed the poor : why ? that he may say to him- 
self, " Thank God I am not as other men are." 
What part had the glory of God in him ! 

But St. Paul, also a Pharisee, cries out that 
he is less than the least of all saints ; chief of sin- 
ners ; ever striving for the mastery over self, lest 
that by any means, when he had preached to 
others, he himself should become a castaway. 
This was the effect of the vision of God's glory, 
an humble, single-hearted service for the honour 
of His name. 

Heavenly Father, we seek to dwell with our 
Lord in the wilderness, to recognize in ourselves 
the approaches to evil, and learn from Him the 
way to resist the Tempter. Grant us that this 
season of special preparation may be to us an 
opportunity to search and know our own heart, 



54 



SEPTTJAGESIMA SUNDAY 



that the conflict with the evil in us may be main- 
tained ; to gain a glorious victory may we be 
willing to keep under our body, and be temperate 
in all things ; so that the work Thou givest us to 
do may be done evermore as unto Thee. Cause 
us to see Thy truth, enlighten our minds, quicken 
the sense of our conscience. 

In us is no strength for this high emprise. Be 
Thou, O Lord of our life, our strength, our habi- 
tation, whereunto we may continually resort, un- 
til we come to Thine eternal kingdom. 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY 

Collect. Lord God, who seest that we put not our 
trust in anything that we do ; mercifully grant 
that by Thy power we may be defended against 
all adversity ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Epistle. 2 Cor. xi. 19. 

Gospel. St. Luke viii. 4. 

To-day carries on the teachings of last Sunday 
to fuller detail. Our Lord has called the publi- 
cans and sinners, has sowed the seed of the word 
in every soil, has set the high mark for our 
motive of action — " the glory of God's great 
name," bidding us strive for righteousness, for 
righteousness' sake ; not for results, not for life's 
prizes, but for the fulfillment of our being's 
highest law. 

It is only by enlarging the vision, by getting 
into the infinities, as Carlyle would say, that the 
due proportion of things is reached. 

Earthliness must always be somewhat distorted. 
It is only when we imagine ourselves out in 
space that we can see the men of our antipodes 
walking with their heads up ! Some things are 
so good now — ease, plenty, health, pleasure of 
the eye and of the intellect — that it is only by 
projecting vision into the larger cycle, that we 
realize they may be snares and evils. 

55 



56 SEXAGESBIA SUNDAY 

Ah ! what need we have to implore the divine 
power when we realize our " adversities.' 1 The 
beginnings of self-indulgence, worldlings, mean 
ambitions, which, accomplished in others, grieve 
and surprise us. By the grace of God we are 
what we are, if indeed we have in any true de- 
gree received the gospel of grace : but we can 
only "stand in it" by keeping in memory the 
facts of our Lord's life here on earth. Facts are 
such a vesture of truth as all must accept. So 
the spirit within us must determine the body or 
form of the hereafter. So the facts of our Lord's 
life are revelation — they are to us the hope of an 
immortal communion ; that where He is there 
we may be also. 

O Thou that hearest prayer, to Thee shall all 
flesh come ! Thou hast blest us with another of 
Thy holy days, given as a sign between Thee and 
us. We have listened to the words Thou hast 
spoken to us through Thy holy Apostles and 
Prophets. We have been permitted to join in 
common prayer and praise in Thy Sanctuary : 
and now, at close of day. we kneel to thank Thee 
that Thou hast so met with us and refreshed us. 

If holy words have fallen on careless ears, and 
prayers been lifeless, or thoughts trivial during 
the hour of worship, we implore Thy forgiveness. 
Quicken us that we may attain more reverence, 
more depth and sincerity in our services. 

Thou hast raised us up, and made us to sit to- 



SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY 57 

gether in heavenly places ; may no judgments of 
this world intrude into our innermost desires. 
Help us to realize our vocation as members of 
the household of God, living stones in His 
temple ; built for an habitation of God through 
the Spirit. So may we shrink from any degrada- 
tion of this temple by inferior or mean desires. 
Grant us clearer eyes to behold Thy truth and 
that we may never be disobedient to the heavenly 
vision. 



QriXQUAGESMA SrXDAT 

Collect. L : '■ .:', : '■ ■ taught us that all our do- 

ings without charity are nothing worth; send 
Thy Ho/j Ghost, and pour into our hearts that 

~;;st cW.y.'.Vv:' z:~t :/ : : :.:r;;\, :':: :.;':/ 

pe>;;£ u-;.i :f j.V zi r :u:'s, z::; : ::ui :, :::h :■. '•:: .- 
ez'i r ,':zs: : : is ;:: v;-.; .is:..: :y_">y T : :ss. G>\r;t 
this V" T'-ii'S: ;;/v S;<v Jesus Christ's s.:ks. 
Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Cor. xiii. 1. 

Gospel. St. Luke xviii. 31. 

More love is what we want. Obedience is 
well, bat we may perchance give it without love : 
we may be upright, honourable, consistent, kind : 
and yet love may be cold in us. Love is not 
affectionateness : the tenderest mother may be 
utterly selfish to the rest of the world. 

The poor beggar, whose cries were considered 
impertinent by the companions of Jesus, was 
heard by the loving Master above the noise of 
the thronging multitude. Jesus gave us an ex- 
ample of the predominating impulse in a nol 
life : to help others, to go out towards others. 

What does help us like living in others? The 

v "other people" who enrich our dull and 

narrow lives with their multiplied experiences. 

and often their noble emotions. Is there a cod- 

58 



QTOTQTJAGESIMA SUNDAY 69 

ceivable lot so unfortunate as to be shut up to 
one's own small interests ? The more one thinks 
of it the more one magnifies His great name, who 
"sets the solitary in families/' who makes us 
even in our deepest life a part of others' deepest 
life, so that with ever-growing sense of privilege 
we enter into the Communion of Saints. 

As we read of great lives, of heroic exertions, 
or see small self-denials and receive perpetual 
kindnesses and delicate courtesy, it all enters 
into us as a wealth, the riches of our own posses- 
sion. Then life flows on broader and more 
exultingly. Yes, we learn to take the dark 
shadows that must come from this intimate con- 
nection with other lives as proof of the fullness 
of life, knowing that tears, sighs and heartaches 
are part of the heritage of love. 

But such love abides only in higher love. We 
must catch it from the income of the divine. It 
comes, as a grace, into many a heart and life that 
is not gifted by nature with fineness or nobility. 
This is the achievement of Christianity. Ten 
are noble by nature, a thousand are made noble 
by contact with Christ. 

Xow we will go into Lent with this ardent de- 
sire for "nobility." There must be no excuses 
for frivolity " because, you see, I was made up 
that way. r There must be no indulgence of the 
egotism that sometimes means ambition, some- 
times self-improvement, sometimes the attaining 
of influence — mere enlarging the Ego. There 
will be no likeness to the " elder brother " about 



60 QTJIXQUAGESIMA SUNDAY 

us, do pkarisaic boast. Maybe we have been 
able to work but one hour, but we know the 
Love that calls us, and we will do all to the gl 
of His Xanie. This is the Covenant of Sacrifice — 
the sweetness of things laid down for one's be- 
loved ; losing one's life to gain it. This is the 
ardour of love that made a St. Paul, that can 
make a rejoicing, conquering soul out of every 
one who takes up that Cross and follows Him. 

O blessed Lord ! Thou didst come into this 
world of sin and suffering to make known to us 
the mighty love of God. Its height, its depth 
we can never fully know ; and yet we may follow 
on to know that which passeth knowledge. Deep 
calls out to deep; our life's strong undertones 
only answer in correspondence with the divine 
touch. Oh, grant us this day such a measure of 
receiving that we may comprehend with all 
saints this Thy glory, the glory of Thy Cross. 
Give us the love 4,/ which constraineth ' ? ; which 
makes prayer a pleasure, the divine Word a de- 
light, the sacrifices of godly abstinence a high 
privilege. So humanity will become sacred to 
us, and we will love our fellows because Thou 
didst dwell among them, didst lay Thy holy hand 
upon them, and they — the least of them — shall 
be seen by us to stand in the glow of Thy love. 



ASH WEDNESDAY 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest 
net king that Thou hast made, and dost forgive 
the sins of all those who are penitent. Create 
and make in us new and contrite hearts, that zee 
worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging 
our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God 
of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness ; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Joel ii. 12. 
Gospel. St. Matt. vi. 16. 

In what way may Lent help lis ? It helps us, 
I think, by making us realize our degradation in 
so far as we are worldly, ensnared by our lusts, 
visited by temptations unresisted. 

Miserably inadequate seems all consideration of 
this plague of sin and the infinite worth of re- 
demption ; the greatness of the Love that drew 
us out of exile. We feel a deep need of the Sac- 
rifice when we see the hideousness of sin — its de- 
struetiveness, its subtle force. 

He who came to show us the pathway to the 
invisible world of life and light resisted these 
forces. He surrendered every delight that came 
between Him and the great work given Him to 
do. Sinless, He yet bore the contradiction of 
sinners, not withdrawing Himself from them ex- 
cept for prayer and communion with God. He 

61 



62 ASH WEDNESDAY 

walked among the sinful and tried to make them 
holy. He was ever merciful to the sinner who 
was conscious of sin and sought to return. He 
always loved the sinner while He always hated 
the sin. Now in Lent we will to come personally 
close to this holy life manifested, the Incarnate 
life, and make it our individual measure. AVe 
are being led to the Cross, where He suffered — 
He the perfect, the holy, the pure ! 

It is because we seek after this power in Christ 
Jesus that we recognize our powerlessness with- 
out it : the lack of peace, the lack of grace. 
From first to last He shared our lot. He was 
our elder brother as well as the Captain of our 
salvation. He brought God so near to us indi- 
vidually that we may say, with St. Paul, "He 
hath loved me, He hath given Himself for me." 

Because Lent is set apart to us for a searching 
of hearts it is not therefore a time of separation 
from our brethren. No. It binds us more closely 
in brotherhood, because the whole of the Lord's 
life was communion with man. He who knew 
no sin became sin for us. He was debased for 
us that we might be glorified with Him. 

Your culture, your growth in these great truths 
must be different as the circumstances of your 
life are different ; but God will show you the 
way, if your mind is set to hallow all occasions. 
Take the mind off the diseases, the desolations 
and the dreariness of life and fix your thought 
on God's eternal years, the unchangeableness of 
the Most High. Then the discipline and ob- 



ASH WEDNESDAY 63 

servances of the Church, symbol on earth of this 
unchangeableness, will bring you joy and strength. 
So to the devout soul the transient things of life, 
which are done in God, which are accepted in 
Him, are transmuted into the immortal life, and 
become a part of that eternal Xow which is in 
us— the fullness of Eternal Life, 

O Lord our God, we come to Thee in all our 
weakness, confessing our pride, our wilfullness, 
our appetites, our woiidliness. Thou, O Lord of 
our life, dost promise to heal us, and to love us 
still. Thou hast translated us from the kingdom 
of darkness into the kingdom of Thy dear Son. 
We pray that we may ever thankfully receive 
this Thine inestimable benefit ; and that our wills 
may be set to follow His most blessed life. 

Grant that we may continually realize the ten- 
der love of the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. 
May His loving voice be heard by us, filling our 
souls with an answering love, and calling us from 
the empty pleasures of sense to the service of the 
living and loving Lord of our Life. 

So may we remain Thy children, rejoicing in 
our Father's house, lying down to rest in His 
gracious care. For in life, in death, O merciful 
Father, may we be Thine ! 



THE FIEST SUNDAY IN LENT 

Collect. Lord> who for our sakes didst fast forty days 
a?id forty nights ; give us grace to use such absti- 
?ience,that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, 
we may ever obey Thy godly motions in righteous- 
ness, and true holiness, to Thy honour and glory, 
who livest and reignest with the Father and the 
Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. 

Epistle. 2 Cor. vi. 1. 
Gospel. St. Matt. iv. 1. 

To-day we meet the no of Lent. We push aside 
the crowd of earthly delights, that we may listen 
to the heavenly voices ; to do this we must abstain 
from many permitted things lest they hinder us. 

We are so swathed about with human comforts 
and pleasures, often utter frivolities, that we fail 
to hear the divine voice calling us to higher things : 
to truth and self-denial and lofty endeavour for 
the world as well as ourselves ; the sound of our 
vocation grows dim and dull through the intru- 
sion of care and the demands of sense. 

We ask, "Is it wrong to do these permitted 
things? " No. But for a while lay them aside ; 
such things as dancing, novels, luxuries of the 
table ; and take such abstinence as a symbol and 
a means : a symbol of repentance for inferior life, 
a means of attaining a higher plane of action. 

Eemember Esau ! He came to Isaac, not seeing 
64 



THE FIEST SUNDAY IN LENT 65 

that he had forfeited his birthright for a mess of 
pottage. He had, so to speak, kept no Lent in 
his life. A vigorous man, a filial son, a generous 
nature, he yet despised the higher role of the 
first-born, and sold it to gratify his hunger, not 
realizing what he had done until Isaac refused 
him the blessing. Then a great and bitter cry was 
torn from him — the opportunity of choice was 
gone. Ah ! may none of us ever utter that cry ! 

So, in this "His mercy's day," we bear in 
memory the " Valley of Decision" into which 
our Lord went down. The Christ is tempted 
in the flesh ; all fleshly lusts are symbolized in 
physical hunger ; and this is His answer, "Man 
does not live by bread alone, but by every word 
of God." 

The world and its glories pass before Him. 
" All will I give Thee if Thou wilt worship me." 
All ambition to be gratified, riches, power, splen- 
dour, fame, this world's prizes at His feet. The 
Christ makes answer, "Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God, Him only shalt thou serve." 

Then the temptation to presumption ; a sin of 
good people. We say, l ' the temple of the Lord, 
the temple of the Lord are we, " thinking we are 
not in danger, sure that we are spiritually sus- 
tained ; and the petty jealousy goes on, the 
crowding envy, the unkind speech continues, the 
little creeping sins are permitted. I am a Chris- 
tian ; I say my prayers ; I study my Bible ; I go 
to church, how can I be evil? Ah! the delu- 
sions that enter here ! David cried out, "Keep 



66 THE FIKST SUNDAY IN LENT 

back Thy servant from presumptuous sins, let 
them not have dominion over me ; then will I be 
innocent from the great transgression ! " 

Now all this is renunciation. Our Sponsors in 
Baptism did vow this in our name. Our Saviour 
went into the wilderness to experience tempta- 
tion's utmost power. Are we willing to stand at 
His side in the conflict ? 

Before we go to our rest, to-night, we come to 
Thee, our Father, in our great need. We know 
how soon our hearts falter, our feeble wills give 
way, our strongest resolves lessen their hold. 

Again we have entered on a season of struggle : 
we desire to go into the deep and silent places of 
our inner life. Grant that Thy Spirit may abide 
with us in the lonely moments, and in the busy 
hours alike ; giving us the glow of resolve, the 
strength for conflict. 

Save us from indifference, from triviality. 
May we be able steadily to consider Him who is 
to us the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that we 
may grow up into Him in all things. 

Oh, let us not stand still in sloth, or fall back in 
weakness ; but living worthy of our great voca- 
tion, in lowliness, meekness and long-suffering 
may we enter into the joys of the Spirit, and be 
conscious of the ministry of angels. 

Give us rest to-night, and on the morrow re- 
newed strength for its duties. 



THE SECOND SUNDAY IX LEXT 

Collect. Almighty God, who seest that we have no power 
of ourselves to help ourselves ; keep us both out- 
wardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls ; 
that we may be defended from all adversities 
that may happen to the body, and from all evil 
thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul ; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Thess. iv. 1. 
Gospel. St. Matt. xv. 21. 

As last Sunday was the day of Eenunciation, so 
to-day is the day of Sanctification. The power 
of Faith to make holy. 

What would man become without "the de- 
fense 7 ' of the God within ! A beast of the 
higher order, as Fronde described the later Bo- 
man when he had thrown off the religion of 
his fathers and became u depolarized ... a 
magnificent animal. ?? The animal, man, leading 
the unregenerate life, the life out of which he 
must be born again, must accept this life of faith 
if he would be cleansed — or sanctified, which is 
the name given this work of the Holy Spirit. 

The Greek of Homer's day cleansed the holy 
vessel with sulphur and other utmost purifiers, 
before he poured into it the wine of oblation : so 
when the ardour of self- dedication comes to us, 
even in its smallest measure, it uplifts and makes 

67 



6S THE SECOND SUNDAY IX LENT 

the body more fit to be a temple of the Holy Ghost. 
God calls all humanity to this — its true corona- 
tion. When the Spirit abides within us He re- 
stores to us more and more the image of God, so 
defaced by sin and neglect. 

Sanctification is a process. Faith is the first 
step, and that step the Syro-Phoenician woman 
took when she claimed the crumbs that fall from 
the bounteous table of God's providence. She 
had not been trained in the moral control of the 
ten commandments, she was a dog of a Gentile, 
but great was her faith and great its reward. 

Often the soul's inner growth is shown by a 
keener appreciation of the unnoticed goodness 
that lies around us on every side. God's love of 
finite goodness is infinite. He delights in those 
beauties of mind and heart which stir our feeble 
affections to their roots. He looks into the hidden 
corners of the heart and sees a thousand lovable- 
nesses hidden from us. He knows His sheep in- 
dividually, and calls them by name. He draws 
them to Himself in their own individual way : no 
two in the same way. 

So, called by the divine Will to sanctification, 
we draw near in faith and become allied, as it 
were, to Him, aud not to the brute in us, and strive 
to perfect the image of God in which we were 
made. 

Sanctify us, O Lord, in body and soul, by the 
indwelling of Thy Holy Spirit. May we not 



THE SECOXD SUXDAY IX LEXT 69 

grieve Thee by negligence, carelessness or in- 
difference ; but walk circumspectly ; keeping Thy 
gifts of Faith, Hope and Love as the treasures of 
our life ; that our names may be written in 
heaven. 

Grant us to become, day by day, more closely 
allied to Thee, O God of Holiness, through draw- 
ing nearer to our Lord and Saviour. Help us to 
study this divine pattern more diligently, so that 
our thoughts being fixed on Him, we may be 
lifted above earth's limited satisfactions. 

Increase our faith that we may obtain effectual 
answer to prayer. Quicken our perception of our 
need and of Thy great goodness ; so that, though 
we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, 
we may do all things through Thy grace. 



THE THIED SUNDAY IN LENT 

Collect. We beseech Thee, Almighty God, look upon 
the hearty desires of Thy humble servants, and 
stretch forth the right hand of Thy Majesty, to 
be our defense against all our enemies ; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle. Eph. v. 1. 
Gospel. St. Luke xi. 14. 

How wisely the Church calls us to active duties, 
after we are cleansed or ' ' sanctified, " as we studied 
last Sunday. The cleansed vessel of the sanctu- 
ary must now be filled with the sacrificial wine. 
u Hearty desires 7 ' must take possession of the 
soul, positive virtues take up their abode in the 
house of life. Where the soul has cleared out a 
lust — it enshrines a desire, where self-indulgence 
has been rooted out — a duty must take its place ; 
lest " empty, swept, and garnished," the soul give 
easy harbourage to the many wicked spirits that 
find a home with " those who have left off to be 
good. * J Alas ! for the meditations and the prayers ; 
they have but exhausted the mental and moral 
nerve. The children of light must walk as chil- 
dren of light. There is no lethargy, no idling for 
those who bear that light in their hands. Eead 

70 



THE THIRD SUNDAY IK LENT 71 

in the Epistle in what way we make manifest our 
inheritance: by " goodness, righteousness, truth." 
These are no negative qualities, but the very ori- 
flamme of our warfare. Quicken your desires 
for the fruits of the Spirit, make still clearer your 
decision to stand with Christ; for He says "he 
that is not with Me is against Me." 

The Spirit of God is stronger than our weak 
nature. He comes to us by the measure of our 
desire. He takes possession of all our qualities, 
mind, manners, actions, if we will to have it so. 
The right hand of His Majesty is as u a strong 
man armed," and in His defense we are at peace. 

O merciful God, by whose fatherly love we are 
helped in our infirmities, take us under the 
shadow of Thy wings, guard us against our spir- 
itual enemies, and let not any evil thing approach 
to hurt us. 

Thou wiliest not the death of a sinner, but 
rather that he should turn from his wickedness 
and live. Turn us, O Lord, and we shall be 
turned. We hear and accept Thy most loving 
invitation: "Come unto Me, ail ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you ! " 

And yet even as we hear, even as we accept, 
we feel within us ignoble tendencies and lower 
aims. We are not free, we are often bound with 
the yoke of our evil desires. Look upon us in 
mercy, search our hearts, and leave no wicked 
thing in us. 



72 THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT 

Deliver us from pride and passion, from folly 
and self-love, from poor companionships, false 
customs, irreverent and uncharitable thoughts, 
and all the powers of darkness. 

Grant us refreshing sleep, and may we wake to 
love Thee more and serve Thee better. 



THE FOUETH SUXDAY IX LENT 

Collect. Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that 
we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to 
be punished, by the comfort of Thy grace may 
mercifully be relieved ; through our Lord a?id 
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Epistle. Gal. iv. 21. 

Gospel. St. John vi. 1. 

Befection Sunday — the Sunday of Grace. The 
sense of forgiveness, of reconciling love is about 
the lessons of the day. " Why will ye die! I 
have no pleasure in the death of the sinner, but 
that he should live,' 7 saith the Lord. The Law 
declared by Moses convicts us of sin, and by that 
sense of sin we are brought to Christ, in whom 
is grace and truth. 

We are no longer under bondage, the cramped 
conditions are relieved ; the sins that hampered 
us are not even brought to mind ; we sit in the 
green pasture and are fed by God's bounty, be- 
yond what we can ask or think. " They filled 
twelve baskets with what remained over and 
above unto them that had eaten." We are in 
the beautiful meadow with the Master, not in the 
barren wilderness. The sea and the sky make 
the setting, and. as those weary with sustained 
labour, we lay our burdens by, and gather round 
the Master's feet. We have the ennobling feeling 
of community with those about us, the gladsome 

73 



74 THE FOUETH SUNDAY IN LENT 

sense of u Household love." In vision we see 
the poor, the wicked, the hungry as scattered 
sheep. Have we not shared in their transgres- 
sion, their poverty and their grief? Oh, that we 
might share the blessed relief that is ours at this 
moment with them, and show how royally the 
Master entertains His guests. " Freely ye have 
received, freely give. Inasmuch as ye have done 
it to the least of these My brethren, ye have done 
it unto Me. " 

O Lord aud Giver of Life, who hast revealed 
Thyself unto us as the God of Love, lead us into 
the secret places of Thy Holiness. We are not 
worthy of this Thy grace, but our worthiness can 
only come from Thee. As we examine our past 
we find sad laxity of effort, negligence of duty, 
and feebleness of purpose. We have prayed — we 
have not always watched unto prayer ; we have 
made our vows unto Thee — and we have forgot- 
ten them ; we have had holy visions — and they 
have been dimmed by dullness and indifference. 
Grant us a due scorn of this faltering, unprofit- 
able religion, that we may seek, as those seek 
who attain, the Grace of perseverance. 

Help us all to realize that we live not to our- 
selves ; so may we not be of those who scatter, 
when they might gather, but give us unity of 
effort. Grant us to abide continually near unto 
Thee, and so nearer to each other. 



THE FIFTH SUNDAY IX LEXT 

Collect. We beseech 2~ ; :rY, A '.mights G:d, mercifully 
upon Thy people ; that by Thy great good- 
ness they may be governed and preserved ever- 
more, o:;-: in body and soul; through Jesus 

Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Heb. ix. 11. 
Gospel. St. John viii. 46. 

Passion Sunday. The long shafts of light from 
the crimson dawn of suffering touch our Lord's 
head, and we see Him stand as the typical Sun 
of Man. Before Abraham was. through the 
eternal Spirit. He offered Himself unto God. In 
Him we reckon ourselves to be God's people, and 
beseech that God may govern and preserve us 
evermore. Our Lord is the same yesterday, to- 
day, and forever. "The body of the Lord pre- 
serve thy body and soul evermore." 

The mystery of the Incarnation holds in it the 
mystery of Personality. It is not the words of 
my friend, but the man behind the words that 
holds communion with me. and gives me of his 
faith, his knowledge, his power. So the Lord 
and giver of Life stands behind all signs and 
symbols of Himself, and His personality gives 
significance to every creation. The growth of 
personality among created things is the history 
of evolution, the last and greatest development. 

75 



76 THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT 

Thus we see the personal Headship of Christ — not 
a Law, not a Philosophy, nor an ethical System, 
but the living, loving Lord. 

The more institutional we become the more 
need we have of this personal love and appropria- 
tion of the Cross. Unless our soul is in contact 
with His great love we cannot be truly faithful 
to them He so loved. We become superficial. 
In living always to others we may neglect the 
close access of our own soul to this central Love. 
In too much detail, by too many cares we may 
fail to realize the underlying principles of that 
which we advocate. This is " cant " — a form of 
words without underlying sincerity. To be ever 
conscious of realities is true spirituality. The 
Jews had lost the indwelling spirit of their faith, 
that splendid faith of the Prophets, else bad they 
not crucified the Lord of Glory. They could not 
understand His saying, " Abraham rejoiced to 
see My day." That vision of the eternal purpose 
is denied to them who live in outside things — 
ceremonies, vestments, and outward observances. 

We are all capable of this. Times and seasons 
come, and we keep them in an exterior way, with- 
out much correspondence of desire or thought. 
We keep a sort of Lent, but the deep spiritual 
acceptance of the season is far from us. We 
must meet with things hard to do ; difficult tasks 
lie before any one who accomplishes anything in 
life. Great nations are formed through painful 
operations, great characters are made by life's 
discipline ; so it behooved Him to suffer, and the 



THE FIFTH SUNDAY IX LEXT 77 

close of His revelation of Himself in the Gospel 
of the day is — "They took up stones to cast at 
Him." 

He is the Captain of our Salvation ; He leads 
only where He has gone before. The Passion — 
then the Palm ! 

Blessed Jesus, who didst humble Thyself to be 
found in fashion as a man, and to taste of death 
for us, even the death of the Cross ; grant to us 
that the travail of Thy soul may be manifested in 
us. May our will be evermore Thy will, to all 
holy purposes and to the praise of Thy holy 
Xaine. 

Thus far Thou hast led us along the pathway 
of life by thoughts to usward more than can be 
numbered ; may we correspond to these countless 
blessiugs, and in all places and at all times from 
the ground of the heart give Thee thanks. 

Give us, O God, a quickened sense of duty, 
that our feet may be swift to run in the way of 
Thy commandments, that we, having our citizen- 
ship in heaven, may yet stand within thy gates, 
O Jerusalem, city of our God ! 



THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFOEE EASTEE 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who, of Thy 
tender love towards mankind, hast sent Thy Son, 
our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon Him our 
flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all 
mankind should follow the example of His great 
humility; mercifully grant that we may both 
follow the example of His patience, and also be 
made partakers of His resurrection ; through the 
same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Phil. ii. 5. 
Gospel. St. Matt, xxvii. 1. 

As our Lord's sufferings were foreshadowed 
last Sunday, so His ultimate victory is prophesied 
to-day, Palm Sunday, the day of victory, even 
through defeat. The perennial palm in its beauty 
and dignity forms the background to the Cross. 
The stones of the valley are lifted into the crown, 
and the sons of grace, the feeble and the strong, 
the sisters of sorrow, and the daughters of de- 
light, the obscure and the distinguished together, 
all join in singing " Blessed is He who cometh in 
the name of the Lord." 

" Oh, yet we trust that somehow good 
Will be the final goal of ill," 

and long to share in making it so. With bended 
knee we take our palm to-day, and in some in- 

78 



THE SUNDAY XEXT BEFORE EASTEB 79 

finitesimal measure strive to share the victory He 
won. Every disciple of the crucified one must 
taste of vicarious suffering if he would be like his 
Lord, and know the fellowship in His sufferings, 
that he may attain to His resurrection. In His 
life our Lord accomplished His passion as well as 
on the Cross ; a life of resisted temptation, per- 
petual ministry, continual prayer, continual serv- 
ice. This was the mind and life of Christ, closed 
in the final act of love on the Cross. "Let this 
mind be in you. ,? The more firmly we grasp 
Eedemption as our portion, the more we crave 
trial, what St. Thomas a Kempis calls "The 
touch of God " ; often tender, sometimes painful, 
as He moulds us to His will. In this spirit men 
of old scourged themselves and fasted to ex- 
tremity. This seems not the true way. For us 
there is the acceptance of our given lot in life, 
with all its dangers and temptations to be re- 
sisted and overcome. We follow in His train ; 
using every stage of existence to prepare us for 
higher tasks, until we are meet for the inheritance 
of the saints in light, and enter the full-grown 
energies of heaven. This preparing for higher 
to-morrows, how practical it is, how inspiring in 
sickness and in health ! For any suffering borne 
in His name unites us to Him. 

O Lord and Giver of Life, quicken our hearts, 
that the poor and languid desires of the days that 
are past may be warmed into such hearty desires 



80 THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE EASTER 

as Thou wilt accept, wilt bless with their own 
fulfillment 

Grant that Thy truth may search out the secret 
avenues of our thoughts, and pervade all our feel- 
ings, so that we may be evermore united to Him 
who is the Way, the Truth and the life. 

3Iay we know more deeply the meaning of the 
Cross, and by it may the world be crucified to us 
and we unto the world. 

Give ns the mind that was in Christ Jesus. His 
endurance. His patience : that we may. in His 
strength, be able to make more earnest effort 
against the sins which cost Him so much. 

For any measure of victory we may have at- 
tained, accept our thanksgiving, and we beseech 
Thee that we may be ever united in Thy fellow. 
ship here, and in Thy glory hereafter. 



GOOD FKIDAY 

The quiet, the pause, the great thoughts of this 
week separate it from all others, arid give it 
power over our future life. 

We watch our Lord through these culminating 
hours, listen to His deep teaching in the Temple, 
see His tears as He sorrowed over the Holy City, 
so soon to be overthrown — u not one stone left 
upon another/' the weeping of that majestic 
Teacher whom all the malice of the accusing 
Jews moved to not one word. Who shall say 
what a work these inner visions do for us? if 
they be genuine, and reach the core of our con- 
victions, and do not dwell simply in the outer 
court of our imaginations. 

"For the joy set before Him, He endured the 
Cross." The Cross has depths of meaning we 
may not speak of. Its awful agony is ever the 
supreme mystery of pain. There we kneel, con- 
scious of our sinful weakness, tempers, inclina- 
tions, desires that degrade ; for surely all that 
does not elevate degrades. Even Plato said 
" degradation is swifter than death." 

As we consider the Captain of our Salvation in 
this supreme moment of infinite suffering and in- 
finite love we become strong to follow after. He 
was despised and rejected. Pain, which may in- 

81 



82 GOOD FRIDAY 

vade our poor bodies, is nothing comparable to 
the misery of having to bear the contempt of 
those we love. And yet He endured the shame, 
steadfast to the end. In His strength we can ac- 
cept all purifying pain, claiming the victory to 
come. 

Schopenhauer's philosophy cannot get behind 
the instrument, the intermediate cause, blind to 
the Divine Will beyond it. Jesus looked not at 
the angry Jews, crying, " Crucify Hini"; but 
He saw the one Will, u not Mine, but Thine, be 
done ! " 

This central drama of earth's history was to 
Goethe, in spite of his genius, not the triumph of 
the Cross, but only the " sanctuary of sorrow," 
unsuited for the light of day, too sacred to be 
meditated upon. If he meant that it should not 
be lightly or irreverently spoken of, I agree. 
But to Goethe that supreme event had no rela- 
tionship to his life ; "to none of my ideals is it 
true/' he says. Much is hidden from the wise 
and prudent and revealed to the childlike heart. 
Some one has said, "Happy contractedness of 
youth, nay of men in general, that at all mo- 
ments of their existence they can look upon 
themselves as complete : and enquire neither 
after the True nor the False, the High nor the 
Deep, but simply after what is proportioned to 
themselves." Blessed, thrice blessed propor- 
tion ! Tented in by the Divine Love ! Little 
children of the loving Lord ! 

These soft and radiant hues of the Divine Love 



GOOD FEIDAY 83 

soften the awfulness of the sacrifice of to-day ; the 
agony in the garden ; the hiding of the Father's 
face. . . . Was it my sin ? Yes, this, after 
all, is each soul's burden of emotion. He suffered 
for me, and can I, will I, crucify Him anew ? 

So we are led into that large place where the 
Cross is lifted up — the uttermost revelation of 
love, the only interpreter of life's ills. 



EASTEE DAY 

Collect. Almighty God, who through Thine only be- 
gotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, 
and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life ; 
we humbly beseech Thee that, as by Thy special 
grace preventing us Thou dost put in our minds 
good desires, . so by Thy continual help we may 
bring the same to good effect ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord, who liveth and r eigne th with 
Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world 
without end. Amen. 

Epistle. Col. iii. 1. 
Gospel. St. John xx. 1. 

The glorious day of the Church's life ! The 
Bride has ou her festal dress, the Sanctuary is 
full of flowers, and Nature is in accord with the 
triumph song that is singing in the heart of man. 

Nature is so close to man in spring. There is 
primitive healing power in her beauty, her charm 
of motion and the sweet song of birds. No notes 
are like those early ones. All first fruits have a 
special value. How many young souls are awak- 
ened now by early visions, touched by the first 
love of best things, keeping the Easter that comes 
not again. In one sense the best is kept to the 
last, but in another we know the year has but 
one blossoming time and we must not waste it. 

What riches gather also around the festal days 
84 






EASTEE DAY 85 

as life goes on, and amid its shifting aspects the 
great basis of fact in our holy religion becomes 
more and more to us ! " Great is the mystery of 
godliness : God was manifest in the flesh, justified 
in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the 
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up 
into glory." From these facts He promises that 
we shall receive power. We need so much this 
income of power in our lives, for righteousness, 
for patience unto the end, for love that seeketh 
not her own, for the ability to abide in the high 
places whither our Lord has called us. 

With far-sighted wisdom the Church, on this 
day of exalted feeling, places in the chief petition 
of the day the practical thought, that we may 
bring all these emotions to "good effect.-' The 
good desires must yield the fruit of good liv- 
ing ; we beseech the divine wisdom to direct us 
so that this "good effect" may be seen in our 
lives, by our bearing to our fellows, our children, 
our friends, ' our servants, those with whom we 
are connected in any relation. All our social 
ties may become " means of grace." 

Drummond, when he was asked what he con- 
sidered the basal thought of Christianity, said, 
"the love of God." The questioner thought the 
Atonement, where the human sense of sin met 
this pardoning love. At Easter we see these 
truths as two strands of the same cord that binds 
us back to God. 

Rescued children of the Resurrection we enter 
on the life that is to be eternal. All our aims, 



86 EASTER DAY 

wishes, efforts are to attain this — the resurrection 
life here on earth and on forever. 



To Thee, O Lord and Giver of Life, be all 
honour and praise and thanksgiving, that Thou 
of Thy great mercy didst redeem us from the 
bondage of sin and death, and translate us into 
the kingdom of Thy dear Son. 

In these blessed days of the resurrection life of 
Him who dwelt among men, may our eyes be 
opened to behold Him, our lives be formed to 
manifest Him. May we strive to fulfill the won- 
derful promise, " He that hath the Son of God 
hath Life," even life forevermore. Oh, let this 
hope of immortality grow in us, so that all our 
life here may be to us a school, a preparation for 
the full-grown energies of heaven. So may our 
small tasks become to us full of infinite meaning, 
our daily round of duty become beautiful and 
satisfying in the light that streams from Thee, 
and in the power of Thine endless life. 



THE FIKST SUXDAY AFTEE EASTEE 

Collect. Almighty Father , who hast given Thi?ie only 
Son to die for our sins, and to rise for our justi- 
fication / grant us so to put away the leaven of 
malice and wickedness, that we may always serve 
Thee in pureness of living and truth ; through 
the merits of the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 St. John v. 4. 
Gospel. St. John xx. 19. 

11 And this is the record, God hath given to us 
eternal life ; and this life is in His Son. He is 
risen for our justification; for if Christ be not 
risen, ye are yet dead in your sins." In the Gos- 
pel for the day Jesus breathed on the Apostles, 
this first Sunday, as He appeared to them, and 
said, " Whose sins ye retain, they are retained," 
showing that the forgiveness of sins is the great 
prerogative of the new dispensation : connected 
indissolubly with the Resurrection. The victory 
of Christ is the victory over sin and death. Who 
is he among us that overcometh but he that be- 
lieveth ! Our faith is " not in vain " as St. Paul 
said. To believe is to live by. So practical is 
our faith, so plain the path. 

Believe the Gospel ; do it, live it. This is the 
utmost we are capable of now. This is the age 
of the Gospel, the age of faith, of temptation, of 

87 



88 THE FIKST SUXDAY AFTEE EASTEE 

doubt, of human imperfections : it is the age of 
the Church. 

You know enough for the present ; only do 
what you know. God will not now reveal new 
truths concerning Himself. Take such as have 
been already revealed and live them, translate 
them into act and experience. 

What we need is to apprehend the real, that 
we may loose the ever-encroaching hold of the 
unreal. With God is no variableness, neither 
shadow of change. If we abide in the eternal 
years our hearts are surely fixed where true joys 
are to be found. Place is not, as it were ; we 
abide in a state of rest, of blessedness, of perma- 
nence ; and yet in a true sense this state is made 
manifest in place, in each small concrete fact of 
our life. Strange, great paradox of life ! its 
smallest concerns are best attended to by those 
whose minds are the more firmly fixed on its 
noblest and most enduring aspects. 

What God commands is the eternal order of 
absolute righteousness. What He promises is 
life forevermore ; and if we choose this life, and 
consecrate ourselves to it, each smallest duty 
grows in joy-giving efficacy. The meanest 
service speaks of Him. The hardest and most 
lonely ministry glows with a sense of His com- 
panionship. 

Before we go to our rest, we kneel before Thee, 
the Giver of all good, to offer up thanksgiving 



THE FIKST SUNDAY AFTER EASTEE 89 

for the blessings of Thy Holy Day ; and its special 
gifts of grace, mercy and peace, in Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Thou hast made us children of the 
resurrection, may we ever live as such. 

Where to-day in our blindness we have not 
seen, where in our indolence we have not striven 
to know, or in our earthliness we have minded 
inferior things, when called upon for higher ; in 
all these our sins and negligences be merciful to 
us, our Father. Cleanse the darkened conscience, 
purify the mind, so that we may see Thee, so 
that we may reflect the light of Thy countenance, 
and thus glorify Thee, O Father in heaven. 



THE SECOOT) SUXDAY AFTER EASTEE 

Collect. Almighty God, who hast given Thine on/\ Son 
to be both a sacrifice for sin and also an ens ample 
of godly life ; give us grace that zve may always 
most thankfully receive that His inestimable bene- 
fit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow 
the blessed steps of His most holy life ; through 
the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle. 1 St. Peter ii. 19. 

Gospel. St. John x. 11. 

To-day's lesson is thankfulness for a great 
benefit, resulting in newness of life. The abso- 
lution realized last Sunday is followed by such 
prevailing sense of the love of God as the prodi- 
gal obtained when he returned. When he loft 
his father's house to seek his own will he had no 
such sense of his father's tenderness as when lie 
returned, and was met a long way off, and was 
given the robe, the ring and the feast. 

These days of the resurrection press home to 
our souls the manifestations of divine love : not 
as a force, immanent in all nature for all. but as 
a forgiving love : the Over-Soul of the world, ab- 
solving, and receiving His repentant children. 
We follow the blessed footsteps, we love to do 
so, because we have been absolved. 

Who does not feel deeply that his past life has 
not been all that he could wish? St. Paul called 

90 



THE SECOXD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 91 

himself " chief of sinners." We inferior spirits, 
knowing our life has failed in so many of its 
highest uses, oh, then to know we can come to 
the Redeemer, feel His love, hear His voice and 
follow Him — this is Christianity ! 

Pagans try to do the right, may be stern with 
themselves when they fail, but they do not enter 
into communion with the Soul of Holiness, as 
those whose sins are forgiven ; whose blessedness 
it is to know the Good Shepherd and be known 
of Him. It is not w T ords we bring ; many call 
Him Lord, yet have not known Him ; but con- 
duct must be our offering. What a tremendous 
call it is ! that we are to follow — not man, but 
God, manifested in Christ Jesus: u Follow 
Me "—that is the progression. 

As the bride follows the bridegroom, as the 
child the father, whose tender love has reestab- 
lished it, so, daily, hourly, in every trivial act 
and deed we seek to follow Thee, O Shepherd of 
our souls ! 

God of our fathers, by whose guidance those 
whom we love have been led and blessed, we 
come to Thee in humble thankfulness for all the 
way Thou hast led them. 

We pray for such a devotion to Thy holy will, 
and desire for what Thou dost promise, as shall 
bring us in constant communion with Thee, and 
with all whom Thou dost bless with Thy Spirit ; 
the holy ones who have gone before us, and the 



92 THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 



blessed owes who yet abide with us. Lead us all 
by Thy grace evermore nearer to Thyself, and fill 
us with Thy heavenly benediction. 

May we be growingly conscious of the rest and 
the peace that flow from Faith, more eager to 
obtain the u substance of things hoped for," and 
grant us the grace to persevere unto the end. 

Enlighten our minds to accept the divine words 
and make them substance of our daily life, a life 
set in the Eternal Years ; so that here in this 
scene, or in the world to come, Thy will may be 
accomplished in us. 



THE THIED SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 

Collect. Almighty God, who showest to them that are 
in error the light of Thy truth, to the intent that 
they may return into the way of righteousness ; 
grant unto all those who are admitted into the 
fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may 
avoid those things that are contrary to their pro- 
fession, and follow all such things as are agree- 
able to the same; through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Amen. 

Epistle. ISt. Peter ii. 11. 
Gospel. St. John xvi. 16. 

The Sunday of the Way. The test of con- 
duct, after all the emotional lessons. We set out 
to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life 
because we had such a sense of the " inestimable 
gift,"— His redeeming love. Now, to-day we sit 
down to count the cost ; in more definite and 
prosaic form to test ourselves, to study well the 
path on which His blessed footsteps would lead 
us. It is the way of righteousness. A road is 
both a choice and a promised goal. This choice 
is our profession, Christ's fellowship is the goal. 
We must avoid all things that are contrary to 
our profession, taking all life's occupations and 
pleasures as strangers and pilgrims, being not of 

93 



94 THE THIED SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 

the world though in the world. If pleasures are 
taken as finalities, ends in themselves, they be- 
come " lusts," and are powerful to draw us from 
the Way, fatal to our profession. 

To some great men visions of the way of right- 
eousness have been granted. The law of Moses, 
deepest in foundation, widest in scope ; the 
maxims of Confucius, showing a fine and high 
morality ; the teachings of Mahomet, strong to 
control ; but none of them knew the goal. 
" Prophets and kings have desired to see the 
things ye see and have not seen them." The 
love of an unseen Father, the redeeming, forgiv- 
ing tenderness of a crucified Saviour, the con- 
stant guidance of a Holy Spirit — the Fellowship 
of Christ's religion. This, this is the Prize of life, 
real, true, eternal ; this the joy no man can take 
from us ! 

O blessed Saviour, turn and look upon us as 
Thou didst upon Thy servant of old, and so make 
us to feel our sins, our negligences, and above 
all our indifference. Create anew in us a desire 
for that life Thou alone canst give, the life which 
comes from abiding in Thee as the branch abides 
in the vine. 

May the words of power heard this day, the 
meaning of our profession, the worth of fellow- 
ship, go forth with us into the coming week, that 
we may follow the steps of Thy holy life, made 



THE THIKD SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 95 

clear to us in the light of Thy truth, shining upon 
the way of Eighteousness. 

Deepen and enlarge within us, according to 
our various needs, such a sense of Thy Grace as 
shall bring us into the more perfect love of God, 
and so may this Grace of our Lord Jesus, this 
Love of God, this Fellowship of the Holy Ghost 
be with us evermore. 



THE FOUETH SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 

Collect. O Almighty God, who alone canst order the 
unruly wills and affections of sinful men ; grant 
unto Thy people that they may love the thing 
which Thou commandest, and desire that which 
Thou dost promise ; that so, among the sundry 
and manifold changes of the world, our hearts 
may surely there be fixed, where true joys are 
to be found ; through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
Amen. 

Epistle. St. James i. 17. 
Gospel. St. John xvi. 5. 

The light of Easter past and Pentecost to come 
meet in the teachings of to-day. It is the central 
Sunday of Eastertide ; that forty days when our 
Lord remained among men in the resurrection 
body. 

The teachings of the Lord of Glory which the 
Church sets apart for us at this time are very 
deep and full, and our hearts burn within us as 
we walk with Him in the way. 

"It is expedient for you that I go away that 
the Spirit of Truth may come." No longer the 
Man, Jesus, whose ministry is limited to Jerusa- 
lem, to Galilee or Samaria ; but the Holy Ghost 
is sent forth by the Father and the Son, whom 
those who believe on Him will receive. Those 

96 



THE FOUETH SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 97 

believers He will guide, through them He will 
convince the world, because the prince of this 
world is judged. 

All half truths, and men's worldly systems 
shall go down, be swept away because of their 
imperfections, be judged and pass • some in fire 
and blood, some through the dry rot of their own 
impotency, some only overcome by the heavens on 
fire and the earth melting with fervent heat ; but 
the purposes of God shall be accomplished, the 
redeemed be gathered home, and there shall be 
a new heaven and a new earth " wherein is no 
Temple/' but the Lord God is the light thereof, 

He, in whom is no variableness nor shadow of 
turning, has promised us final victory, has bidden 
us fix our hearts on the true joys to be found in 
Him. If we love what He commands, and desire 
what He promises, how inevitably connected are 
the two " wherefores " of the Epistle. Our un- 
ruly wills and our sinful affections are submitted 
to God's ordering, and we are at peace. 

Blessed Lord, who hast called us by name, who 
hast manifested Thy tender love and care for us 
in all the varied experiences of our life ; give 
unto us evermore to realize this Thine exceeding 
goodness and compassion towards us. We are so 
full of sin, so unruly in our wills, so prone to 
wander, to fill our days with empty frivolities. 

Grant unto us such constant guidance as shall 
make us resolute in the midst of temptation, 



98 THE FOUETH SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 

calm in danger, joyous in pain and serene in 
conflict. 

Thou, God, art our hiding-place, our covert in 
the storm, the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land. By the still influences of the Blessed Com- 
forter Thy people have heretofore been guided. 
They have not tarried for man nor waited for the 
sons of men. May we be thus revived, strength- 
ened and uplifted day by day. 

Oh, make us to hear Thy voice, to love Thy 
commandments and desire Thy promises ; to es- 
teem as true joys those things that abide forever. 



THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 

Collect. Lord, from whom all good things do come ; 
grant to Thy humble servants that by Thy holy in- 
spiration, we may think those things that are good, 
and by Thy merciful guiding may perform the 
same ; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Epistle. St James i. 22. 
Gospel. St. John xvi. 23. 

To-day ushers us into the Eogation Days, pre- 
ceding the Ascension. Our High Priest is about 
to enter the Holy of Holies, there to make inter- 
cession for us, and we bring Him our petitions, 
as He tells us in the Gospel : ' l Hitherto ye have 
asked nothing in My name. Ask and ye shall 
receive." Immediately after this Christ says 
u in the world ye shall have tribulation," show- 
ing that we were not to ask earthly happiness, or 
even freedom from trouble, but heavenly bless- 
ings, "the things that remain," which cannot be 
lost by death. 

The Collect leads the way, pleading for holy 
inspiration in thought and guidance in act ; that 
we may be doers of the Word, not hearers only. 
We are not set in vagueness of life, but bound by 
the Gospel rules, which result from the Gospel 
facts. When the bands of religious observance 
are loosening, on account of some overcoming 
affection or soliciting circumstance, or worse, 

99 



100 THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTEE 

some self-indulgence — recall the end of this 
course. Ask yourself " The work of Christ, do 
I live it? Am I a branch in that sacred Vine? " 
The Cross is its symbol, the Resurrection its holy 
way ; the Eucharist is its perpetual nourishment, 
prayer and the Word its quickening power. 

The operations of Nature are closely analogous 
to those of the Spirit. The vital germ in every- 
thing controls the development of the natural 
forces and makes the form, now a clover blossom, 
now an oak, a toad, a tiger, a man. The same 
elements in all, the same energies in all ; but the 
dominating life principle determines which it 
shall be, and just what it shall be. 

In the wisdom of God there is harmony, it is a 
great whole. In nature the prepared machinery 
of our lower life of sense and instinct is made 
the groundwork of the higher evolution of the 
equally prepared work of righteousness. Christ, 
the perfect Man, coming into this same condition 
of animal mechanism, reveals the fullness of the 
moral idea, and sets forth the preadjusted har- 
mony of the spiritual life. " Thou in the begin- 
ning hast laid the foundations of the earth. . . . 
They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure." The 
King of Glory returns to that glory which He 
had before the foundation of the world ; He will 
pray the Father for us, that where He is we may 
be also. 

Most gracious God and heavenly Father, Thou 
hast spoken peace to our souls, and reconciled 



THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEE EASTEE 101 

us to Thyself by the blood of Thy Son. Thou 
dost bring us up in the knowledge of our Lord 
and Saviour ; in Thy steadfast fear and love. 
Give us the grace of perseverance, that we turn 
not again to folly. Sanctify us wholly to Thy 
service. O Lord, we have presented ourselves 
body and soul unto Thee, every action, every 
member, every desire. We beseech Thee make 
them fit for Thy service. 

Give unto us an understanding heart, as Thou 
didst to Thy servants of old. Open our eyes to 
see Thee, our ears to hear Thy Word, our mouth 
to confess Thee, and our hearts to entertain Thy 
presence. Grant us the daily renewal of Thy 
Holy Spirit, that His seal may be set on our 
time as belonging to those eternal years which 
are ever the same and fail not. 



THE ASCENSION DAY 

Collect. Grant , we beseech Thee, Almighty God, thai 
like as we dc believe T;\ only begotten Son vur 

Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the 
heavens; so we may also .. heart and mind 
thither ascend and with Him continual!} dwell, 
who liveth and reigneth with Thee an.: 
Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. 

Epistle. Acts i. 1. 

Gospel. St. Mark xvi. 14. 

A day of gladness and rejoicing! The dis- 
ciples returned from the Mount with great joy. 
Jesus had bidden them wait for the promise of 
the Father, and the glad expectation of it filled 
their hearts with an ineffable peace and joy. 
The same Jesus whom they loved, who had risen 
from the dead, was exalted before them in the 
heavens. Now they know, now they can bear 
witness, now they believe the promise of the 
Father. This is heaven opened to them. Here- 
after they can think of life here and life eternal 
as one ; they can dwell on earth and yet be pres- 
ent in the heavenly places: " thither ascending 
in heart and mind.'' 

So now, it all seems fitting that in the spring 
time, in the glory of fresh verdure and flowers. 
the happy May- time of the year, we should cele- 

102 



THE ASCENSION DAY 103 

brate this established intercourse with the unseen 
world of life and light. ' L With Thee is the foun- 
tain of life, in Thy light may we see light, w all 
nature seems to call aloud. If only our hearts 
would open to the correspondence ! 

"Like as we do believe" so we should ascend 
in mind and heart with Him, and there contin- 
ually dwell. Truly, it is as the Psalmist says, 
" walking in a large place." There, in the 
presence of the King of Glory we may catch 
some of the royal feeling : the sense of a long an- 
cestry, and of a sure future. What ease of spir- 
itual movement it should give us, what grace and 
dignity of thought ! 

As we go on in life how high and holy it be- 
comes ! Truly the cloud of witnesses appears 
luminous in the face of the ascended Christ. 
The Fountain of Light and Life sheds the only 
light for so complicated, devious and difficult a 
journey as ours. But it is light ineffable ! 

So the joy of anticipation comes to us to-day ; 
felt most by those who have lost from earth their 
dearest. To-day we remember they are more 
present with the Lord of Life than we who are 
still tried with earthly infirmity. He came to 
us ; He left us ; but with them He is ever 
present. 

The hour of calm which we reach with such 
extreme effort at detachment is, with them, the 
continual atmosphere. Here it is like the boy's 
school exercise, there it is the full-grown energy 
and freedom of a man in a man's work. So Eet- 



104 THE ASCENSION DAY 

rospect and Hope gladden us as we stand on the 
Mount of the Ascension ! 

Thou, O Father, art calling us Home ; to some 
of the many mansions Thou hast prepared for us. 
Thou dost bid us labour to enter into this our 
rest ; to follow our great High Priest, who has 
passed before us. 

Jesus, blessed Son of the Father, we would in 
Thy Name come boldly unto the throne of grace, 
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help 
in time of need. 

Along our pathway home lie so many dangers, 
temptations, snares. Wilt Thou be our very 
present help in time of trouble. Confirm in us 
every holy aspiration ; fix in us every lofty de- 
sire ; and as we go to our rest bless us and keep 
us, and give us refreshing sleep. To Thy ever 
watchful love we commit our dear ones from 
whom we are separated. May we all so live that 
we shall be received at last into Thine eternal 
kingdom. 



THE SUNDAY AFTEE ASCENSION DAY 

Collect. God, the King of Glory, who hast exalted 
Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph 
unto Thy kingdom in heaven ; we beseech Thee, 
leave us not comfortless ; but send to us Thine 
Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us to the 
same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone 
before, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and 
the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. 
Amen. 

Epistle. 1 St, Peter iv. 7. 
Gospel. St. John xv. 26. 

"The end is at hand." This is the emphasis 
of to-day. We are bidden to realize the short- 
ness of this mortal life, set between two eternities, 
and its stupendous results. The life of the Pres- 
ent belongs to the Past and is part of the eternal 
Future. We look unto the Author aud Finisher 
of our faith and see Him as the "Larob slain 
from the foundation of the world." recognize 
Him in His present person as our Saviour, and 
believe that in the life to come we shall be like 
Him for we shall see Him as He is. The Eternal 
Now in which we stand. Now is the accepted 
time, now is the day of salvation. Turn ye unto 
the Lord now while He may be found. 

Each life reproduces in miniature much of what 
the large cycle of history portrays. 

105 



106 SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY 

The Jews suffered from devouring desolation 
when they forsook God. Darkness covered their 
sky, the Romans subjected them politically, their 
religion was smothered in detail, their teachers 
could give nothing but vain repetitions. But 
just in that degenerate age the Redeemer came ; 
just then it was that the Pentecostal power en- 
tered the world. The Holy Spirit, by the exalta- 
tion of the Man Christ Jesus to the right hand of 
God, convinces the world of sin, of judgment and 
of righteousness. He is exalted, who showed forth 
to mankind the true glory. Yes, that body with 
its pierced hands and feet — effect and cure of sin 
— is the humanity which is to prevail while sin 
lasts. 

Oh, the shallowness of the man who says it is 
not pardon we seek, but character ! Character 
comes, we do not consciously build it up. In 
the grace and joy of pardon we seek for His 
guidance who vouchsafes to look upon us in 
the face of His Anointed. The burden of our 
sins is removed ; w r e turn away from them, as 
Leigh ton says, with "implacable hatred." We 
are not feigning repentance. Our mind is 
changed, not our whim, our preference of the 
hour. 

How fitly St. Augustine expressed it : "I con- 
fessed all to the Lord, to whom all the abyss of 
my sin and misery lay open, not that I might be 
manifest to Him, but that He might not be hidden 
from me." With the barrier of sin removed we 
see Him ; to see Him is to love Him ; to love 



SUNDAY AFTEB ASCENSION BAY 107 

Him is to grow like Him. This is true character 
buildiDg. 

Our Father, as we kneel before Thee this night, 
make our hearts truly thankful for this holy day ; 
for its visions of Thy great glory, manifested in 
the exaltation of our Lord to Thy kingdom in 
heaven ; leaving to us the hope of this manifesta- 
tion in all the sons of God, those to whom He is 
eternal salvation — even those who obey Him. 

As He came to do Thy will, may we be in- 
spired anew to walk in His steps, to ascend con- 
tinually in heart and mind to the place whither 
He is exalted. 

Cause us to hold fast to our profession. In the 
hour of temptation give us the sense of His pres- 
ence, who was tempted as we are, yet without 
sin. Be not silent to us. Leave us not to our- 
selves. The lusts of the flesh and the pride of 
life are strong within us. May we hear the words 
of the Conqueror saying, "Be of good cheer, I 
have overcome the world." 

Open our hearts, as the gates were lifted up to 
let in the King of Glory, that His indwelling 
presence may be guidance and defense to us for- 
evermore. 



WHITSUNDAY 

Collect. God, who as at this time didst teach the 
hearts of Thy faithful people, by sending to them 
the light of Thy Holy Spirit ; grant us by the 
same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, 
and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort ; through 
the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liv- 
eth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the 
same Spirit, one God, world without end. A?.: en. 

Epistle. Acts ii. 1. 
Gospel. St. John xiv. 15. 

In the lessons of the day the old and new cove- 
nants are contrasted. In its measure the Spirit 
spoke to Abel, to Enoch and to all the worthies 
of the ancient world, of whom it was emphatically 
said they " knew God had in reserve some higher 
revelation.' ' On the Mount the strict "Thou 
shalt, thou shalt not" was given to Moses : but 
in the new dispensation the Commandments are 
resolved into the higher law of the Spirit of Life 
in Christ Jesus. The Ten Commandments are 
made effective on the interior life in being filled 
full by the Son of Man ; He who was filled with 
the Spirit of God without measure. 

The Covenant in Christ was consummated in 
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 
The Spirit world opened up as never before. 
The ability to receive godly motions from the 

108 



WHITSTJITDAY 109 

world of the Spirit was infinitely increased. A 
highway was made, and the power to walk in it 
given. 

The growth of the child into manhood exempli- 
fies this. First the law. and punishments ; then 
the questionings ; then a larger intelligence re- 
ceives the impressions of fatherly love and care. 
Soon the desire awakens to fulfill the will in 
every way that can be known, not waiting for 
commands. Is this not the law of the Spirit of 
Life? " Behold ye are no longer servants, but 
friends ! ' ' 

What a great question it was that Jade asked ! 
" Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself 
unto us and not unto the world ! n Our modern 
philosophers ask it, but in such a different spirit. 
"Ton speak of godly motions." say they, "we 
experience none such ; but we understand some 
of the psychical laws, and by them we explain 
feelings and conduct. " Let us mark anew our 
Lord's answer to Jude. "If a man love Me, he 
will keep My words ; and My Father will love 
hiin. and we will take up our abode with him.*' 
But the Church never lets us lose ourselves in 
contemplations, however glorious and comforting 
they may be. She calls us to pray for a right 
judgment in all things: making conduct stand 
ever before us as the measure of attainment. We 
pray for the Spirit. Are we asking for what we 
mean to cherish or to quench ? 



110 WHITSUNDAY 

Most gracious God, who art reconciled unto us 
through the sufferings of our merciful Saviour, 
having for His sake forgiven the offenses of Thy 
people, and covered their sins with the robe of 
His righteousness ; let Thy Spirit convert and 
quicken us, that through faith in Thy promises 
we may rejoice in Thee, and in Thy salvation. 
We have yielded ourselves so often servants unto 
sin, may we henceforth, in newness of life, seek 
to yield ourselves servants unto holiness. 

Make us all more and more sensitive to the un- 
seen realities, so that we may grasp with firmer 
hand Thy support, and feel in fuller measure the 
glow of Thy Presence, until we come into Thy 
nearer light. 



TEIXITY SUNDAY 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given 
unto us Thy servants grace, by the confession of a 
true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal 
Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty 
to worship the Unity ; we beseech Thee that 
Thou wouldst keep us steadfast in this faith, and 
evermore defend us from all adversities, who liv- 
est and reigneth one God, world without end. 
Amen. 

Epistle. Kev. iv. 1. 

Gospel. St. Jolm iii. 1. 

The faith of the blessed Trinity. It holds in it 
my acceptance of the meaning of man ? s destiny, 
and his mode of fulfilling it. This great dogma 
is a very compendium of the Faith. We are 
baptized into it, married by it, buried in its 
words ; it stands to us for our whole profession. 
In it is bound up our relation to a loving Creator, 
a compassionate Saviour, and the Spirit of Truth, 
our guide and Comforter. 

Trinity is the essence of Christianity. Xo 
wonder that it has been so guarded. It is not 
a metaphysical apprehension ; but an humble, 
simple faith, that of the martyrs, u by no subtle- 
ties beguiled. " In the acknowledgment of the 
Trinity, and in the worship of the Unity St. Peter 
Martyr commended his heroic soul in death, writ- 
Ill 



112 TEINITY SUNDAY 

iug the opening sentences of the Creed in his 
blood in the dust. 

The Scriptures are not the substance of revela- 
tion, but the divinely guarded history of revela- 
tion. In them, by implication, the Trinity is 
everywhere taught. But as it required the vision 
at Joppa to make St. Peter understand the call to 
the Gentiles, so it seemed to take the opposition 
of human reason for three hundred years to draw 
forth from out the heart of the Church the full 
recognition of this fundamental doctrine. 

Would that we continually made the sign of 
the cross on our soul, in the name of the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost ! Surely then we would 
grow into the fuller knowledge of this great 
Mystery — hidden in light, manifested to the 
slowly growing power of correspondence in 
Christ's Church. 

One God. Yes. " My Father is greater than 
I," said Jesus. The "Son of Man" must ever 
be a limited revelation of the " Great I Am," 
the Essence of Being. And yet He reveals Him- 
self to us in time and space in the person of 
Christ, and pervades the souls of mankind by the 
indwelling Spirit ; to whom as One and yet 
Three all created things do offer worship and 
praise everlasting. 

Almighty and most merciful Father, Thou 
hast given us another Lord's Day ; for all its 
lessons, for the privileges of prayer and praise 



TEINITY SUNDAY 113 

we give Thee thanks. Forgive us when we have 
been irreverent, careless and indifferent. If we 
have slighted Thy gift-day, neglected it or suf- 
fered it to be occupied with inferior pleasures ; 
look upon us in mercy and forgive. 

Draw us closer to Thyself and into deeper 
knowledge of Thy love. Bathe our souls con- 
tinually in the ineffable light of Thy presence, 
O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so that we may 
never seek by any system of man's philosophy to 
wander away from that blessed mystery. 

Before we go to our rest we commit ourselves 
to Thy care. Grant us refreshing sleep, that we 
may awake with bodies fitted to do heartily 
whatsoever Thou shalt appoint. And in the 
common task, the daily work, give us to walk 
before Thee with a perfect heart all the days of 
our life. 



THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTEE TRINITY 

Collecte O God, the strength of all those who put their 
strength in Thee ; mercifully aeeept our prayers : 

and because, through the weakness of our mortal 
nature, zee can ao no good tiling without Thee % 

grant us the help of Thy grace, that in keeping 
Thy commandments we may please Thee, both in 
will and deed : through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

A MEN. 

Epistle. 1 St. John iv. 7. 
Gospel. St. Luke xvi. 19. 

We enter now the season set apart for the study 
of the teachings of Christ. Precedence is given, 
following the order our Lord established, to "the 
first and great commandment, r love to God and 
to our neighbour. 

God alone is the strength of those whom He 
calls to obey Him in all the work of life. We 
cannot by nature obey commands with willing- 
heart which are not welcome to us. So we need 
to recognize His love, and thereby to trust in 
Him ; in all His orderings for us. in all the con- 
ditions of our earthly lot, as well as in the hard 
duties which lie along pleasant paths. 

We know in whom we have believed : and 
loving Him, trusting Him, we find that " perfect 
love casteth out fear.* ■ We can't be pessimists. 
For those things which by reason of the weakness 

114 



THE FIEST SUKDAY AFTEE TEINITY 115 

of our mortal nature we cannot do of ourselves, 
we believe will be done by divine grace in us. 
" Perfect the cup as planned, let age approve of 
youth, and death complete the same. 7 ' The 
Divine Potter will accomplish His ends by means 
whose cycle we may not measure. 

This confidence in God's love will make us 
willing to do hard things : it will not make hard 
things easy, no, but it will make us content, often 
eager to do them. The condition of Lazarus in 
the body was most grievous, but we know that 
his faith never wavered through all, because after 
his hard trials, we find him in Abraham's bosom, 
Abraham, " the Father of the Faithful." 

And what of Dives on the other side of "the 
great gulf fixed ? ' between earthly and spiritual 
success'? Earthly success need not be of the 
purple and fine linen. It may be intellectual 
success ; the statesman's success, or any other that 
is destitute of eternal qualities. It perishes as 
success when this mortal state is over : for only 
what we have acquired in the spiritual life can 
go with us into the next world. The turning 
away from the highest ideals and the highest 
pleasures of life, that is the great failure ! There 
is no harm in oxen or fields or wife ; the fatal loss 
is when they keep us from the Great Supper. 
There is no harm in purple and fine linen if we 
share them continually, knowing with deep con- 
viction that such things are the chances of the 
hour, and love for our brother, though he be a 
beggar at the gate, is the true riches. 



116 THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTEE TRINITY 

How hard for the rich man to enter the spiritual 
kingdom ! But we have often seen what appeared 
great impediments break up, and, as by trans- 
muted force, become powers for righteousness ; 
or by consecration they exalt the life they would 
otherwise weaken or degrade. This transmutation 
of force is a constant miracle in the lives of saints. 



THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 

Collect. O Lord, who never f attest to help and govern 
those whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast 
fear and love ; keep us, we beseech Thee, under 
the protection of Thy good providence, and make 
us to have a perpetual fear aud love of Thy holy 
Name ; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle. 1 St. John iii. 13. 
Gospel. St. Luke xiv. 16. 

Twice in the central petition of the day we 
speak of the fear and love of God : once as sur- 
roundings in which we are " brought up,' ' and 
again as an interior compulsion of the divine will. 
Scientists classify the shaping powers of life 
under two heads : environment and heredity. So 
in the Collect we seek to receive both these 
moulding forces from God. We are ' ' brought up ' ' 
in His fear and love, and, as children of the new 
birth, we have an inborn fear and love of our 
heavenly Father's holy Name. 

The adjectives " steadfast' ? and " perpetual" 
call us to a contemplation of what is real, of what 
endures. On such objects our love should beset, 
our hearts be surely fixed. It is this opening the 
doors of our spirit to eternal realities that gives 
sacramental value to life. As symbols the rela- 
tionships of life give growth and happiness, but 

117 



118 SECOXD SUNDAY AFTEE TKIXITY 

they should never be bartered for with the eternal 
verities as exchange. 

The Israelite's promises were for this life : 
Christ's were not. He elevated our desires into 
the religion of the Eternal Years. His beatitudes 
were for those who were persecuted and suffered 
in this world. There is no mistaking the differ- 
ence between Judaism and Christianity here. 
Earthly blessings, and political permanence, 
desired by the Hebrews, were only symbols of the 
lasting and real, while Faith, "the substance of 
things hoped for/' is the key-note of Christianity. 
We must "lose our life to gain it." This glory 
through loss, what is it but the world's ideal of 
heroism ? from' the beginning dimly shadowed, 
but fully manifested in Jesus. 

It is like the call to the Great Supper. I have 
bought a piece of land ; my business is so exact- 
ing ! How can I have leisure for divine or unseen 
things f I have a yoke of oxen ; I go to try them. 
I must test my possessions, and look after my in- 
vestments. I have married a wife. This passion 
of love, how engrossing it is ! How can I turn 
away even for a moment ! 

Yet we are all capable of feeling the supremacy 
of ideal claims. How base the man who refuses 
to go to his country's aid when called ! How 
should we regard the man who would deny his 
feirh because by so doing he could make more 
ample worldly provision for wife and children ? 
We all feel this. We have enough of the divine 
image in us to recognize it when the picture is 






SECOND SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 119 

held up before us. Have we the habit of putting 
in practice this faith ? 

A sacrificial life is typified by the Cross ; and 
when men reject such a life they must choose an- 
other religion, or remain wrapped in shams. 
Baptismal vows continually represent our whole 
profession. The life of self-indulgence cannot be 
the Christian Life. 



THE THIED SUNDAY AFTEE TELSTTY 

Collect. Lord, we beseech Thee, mercifully to hear 
us ; and grant that we, to whom Thou hast given 
an hearts desire to pras, may, by Thy mighty aid, 
be defended and comforted in all dangers and 
adversities : through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Epistle. 1 St. Peter v. 5. 
Gospel. St. Luke xv. 1. 

To-day is full of the sense of how worth while 
life is. The hearty desire to pray, like happy 
children in the household of God ; the certain 
defense and comfort, and the glory to be revealed 
when we have been strengthened and settled by 
our trials here. Best of all, tenderest proof of 
the love that encompasses us — the story of the 
Shepherd who left the ninety and nine to search 
the wilderness through for the sheep that had 
wandered and was lost. We are told that this 
life which we lead now can add to the joy of an- 
gels : they and our beloved dead must know so 
much better than we what makes life worth liv- 
ing. But we understand life's worth better when 
we know that the least of us is of infinite value 
to God. As the sheep to the shepherd, as the piece 
of silver to the woman, as the repentant sinner 
to the King of men and angels : He careth for us. 

Jesus — Saviour : what comfort to the soul is in 
120 



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 121 

that word — Saviour ! Indeed it is a symbol of 
the underlying truth of our life : that God, who 
is Love, is leading us to Himself, in Christ : He 
is saving us by union with Himself. " I in Thee 
and they in Me." In this mystical communion 
we come to the Eucharist, holding in remem- 
brance, bearing in memory His love to us, and 
ours to each other. Memories of love — that world 
not present to sense ; recollections of deeds of 
affection in the past ; visions that call out con- 
stancy and faithfulness to our fellows ; loves that 
are lifted high above the flesh ; these crowd about 
us as we enter the secret place of the Most High. 
Sure are we of His mighty aid. In dangers de- 
fended and in adversities comforted. The dan- 
gers often meet us on the very threshold of the 
sanctuary ; and in the Epistle St. Peter warns us 
to be vigilant. 

A most subtle danger is the temptation to mis- 
take a form of godliness for its power ; thinking 
that while we pray, and meditate and feel holy 
aspirations, somehow, in some way, this will be 
set over against some daily sin, some indulged 
infirmity, some wrong-doing to our neighbour. 

Then there is the weakening of the will, failing 
in steadfastness, through the very sense of se- 
curity. The training of the will is of vast im- 
portance, giving decided operations and quick 
and just impulses in cases of stroDg temptation. 
One learns to say, " Yes, I do like it, but I don't 
do it; " and by and by the rest of one's nature 
comes into subjection to this will. 



122 THIED SUNDAY AFTEE TEIXITY 

If youth is more subject to the dangers of life, 
age needs more the comfort promised ; and from 
a long life of " labour and sorrow" I can bear 
testimony to the comfort of God's grace. In in- 
creasing serenity and calm, growing out of in- 
creasing trust ; in a larger hope, the result of 
larger experience ; in greater patience to await 
results, following longer observation of the slowly 
working processes of spiritual evolution. 

I think the quiet seeming years are the most 
exacting. Great occasions bring great aids, we 
mount as on eagle's wings ; but ah ! to walk and 
not faint along the worn and dusty highway, this 
is hard. But with the Divine Companion, walk- 
ing as those "that are agreed," the roughest way 
is made plain, the dullest day is glorified. 



THE FOUETH SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 

Collect. O God, the protector of all that trust in Thee, 
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy ; 
increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy, that, 
Thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass 
through things temporal that we finally lose not 
the things eternal Grant this, O heavenly 
Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. 
Amen. 

Epistle, Bom. viii. 18. 

Gospel. St. Luke vi. 36. 

This is one of the most complete of the Trinity 
Sundays ; rich in meaning, and wide of range. 
The Collect sets the level of dignity, and poetical 
expression. Staying our mortality upon Him, 
the all-strong and all-holy, we pray that we may 
so pass through time that we lose not eternity. 

St. Paul follows with a vision of the slow proc- 
esses of time through which we are passing. 
The whole creation, and each individual person 
as part of that creation, labours to a higher state 
— " the manifestation of the sons of God." The 
sufferings, the endeavours, the self-denials are 
not worthy to be compared with the glory which 
shall be revealed : that redemption of the body ; 
when the spirit will fashion the form and the 
type be perfected. Each mark on the spirit, 

123 



124 FOUETH SUXDAY AFTER TEIXITY 

each undying soul gain will be part of that 
embryonic beauty whose development awaits us : 
shall we not be willing to suffer that we may at- 
tain ! We will give up the passing comforts for 
the enduring treasures. We will pay all our 
goodly pearls for the one pearl of great price. 
All our losses, all our disappointments, all our 
griefs we will detain, as Jacob did the angel, be- 
seeching them, before they leave us, to give us 
the higher blessing. 

Truly religion is something more than a private 
consolation. Before its grand aims hearts may 
often be broken, lives crushed with toil, priva- 
tion and sacrifice. If patriotism asks these 
things of us should we not more readily render 
them to the demands of our heavenly citizenship ? 
By these contemplations we are lifted out of our 
self-centred emotions, and so pass on to the 
study of the Gospel. Here the wisdom of the 
Fathers is nobly shown in the choice of the por- 
tion appointed for the day. Our Lord's prac- 
tical, simple and definite commands concerning 
our behaviour towards humanity. 

The " manifestation of the sons of God " is the 
manifestation of the brotherhood of man. One 
includes the other. "Judge not, and ye shall 
not be judged.' 7 We remember first of all that 
we are brothers, before we seek to discern through 
crossing paths of individual difference the way 
to broad agreement. More than that, this broth- 
erhood itself, above our private share in its bene- 
fits, is an independent and luminous reality, the 



FOURTH SUNDAY AFTEE TRINITY 125 

proof of its claims being the Divine Brother of 
us all. 

To this thought of the full interchange of 
vitality through all created things and their 
Creator, belong the words, " increased and mul- 
tiplied mercies," "good measure, pressed down 
and running over," and the u glorious liberty of 
the children of God. " We are made to recognize 
this outgoing of all our inner culture. We open 
up our spirits to the divine guidance, so that we 
may learn how to bear us towards our fellow man. 
We would not do without the poetry of the 
Epistle, but we live by the redeeming love shown 
in the Gospel, lived in the life of Christ. "Be 
ye therefore perfect as He is perfect." 



THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 

Collect. Grant, Lord, we beseech Thee, that the 
course of this world may be so peaceably ordered 
by Thy governance, that Thy Church may joy- 
fully serve Thee in all godly quietness ; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle, 1 St. Peter iii. 8. 
Gospel. St. Luke v. 1. 

Growth in Peace ! This is the chief thought 
of the day. The Church has so many ways of 
growing. In strife, in upheaval, in conflict over 
doctrine, in reform of manner, or what one might 
call revolution ; but to-day we see her in peace ; 
developing in the atmosphere that best suits a 
growing flower ; the members pictured in the 
Epistle as forming a society, courteous, refined, 
pure, untroubled, having God in their hearts. 

A restful, comforting side of our human life is 
here portrayed. Like the character of Isaac, set 
between the supreme faith of Abraham, and the 
bitter conflicts by which Jacob was made a 
Prince before God. Isaac the contemplative, the 
quiet inheritor of his father's trust ; living in 
perfect peace in his tent with his beloved wife, 
Eebecca, and going forth at eventide to meditate. 
In his simplicity doubting no one, least of all his 
wife and son. Blessing as he desired to bless. 
Doing what was to work out the regeneration of 

126 



FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEB TBINTTY 127 

the nations, yet in entire ignorance of the great 
design. A type of quiet godliness, doing the 
next duty. 

We draw aside from the pressing crowds, as 
our Lord did, and on the bosom of the quiet 
Lake we listen to our Lord speaking peace. The 
rest after storm, the quiet after turmoil, the Port, 
the Haven and the Ingathering. For the tone of 
hopefulness and confidence is strong in the Gos- 
pel. The pessimism of Peter's reply, u we have 
toiled all the night, and have taken nothing,' 7 is 
brightened immediately by that beautiful u nev- 
ertheless." Blessed recorded word for those who 
strive to be " fishers of men* ' ! The consolation 
of many a wakeful night, of many a despairing 
hour to those who labour to serve the Master 
through their fellow men. 

The source of this harmony and peace we find 
in the ordering of all things by God's governance. 
If we are conscious of God's governance ; if we 
place ourselves in accord with the one perfect 
Will, life is made full of music, not of noise ; 
dull prose is not allowed to prevail over beauti- 
ful rhythm ; noble feelings, aspiring thoughts set 
themselves in loving actions. That exquisite 
grace, the art of living, is accomplished in us. 
Not without practice, though ; as in any other 
art, proficiency only comes from practice. St. 
Peter, in the Epistle, gives us what might be 
called the " exercises " of this noble art. 

This is living a life of true sanity. Not the 
distorted estimate of Macbeth, fevered by mortal 



128 FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEIXITY 

sins; likening life to "a tale told by an idiot, 
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing " ; but, 
sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts, we are 
given to recognize much of the governance of 
God in the world, and to trust Him utterly where 
we cannot see. 



THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 

Collect. God, who hast prepared for those who love 
Thee such good things as pass mail' } s understand- 
big ; pour into our hearts such love towards 
Thee, that we> loving Thee above all things, 
may obtain Thy promises which exceed all that 
we can desire ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Epistle. Rom. vi. 3. 
Gospel. St. Matt. v. 20. 

This is the Sunday of Love : the love which 
leads us into union with Christ, who is the im- 
personation of the Fathers love, in whom we 
are baptized — into His death to sin, into His 
resurrection to righteousness. That righteous- 
ness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes 
and Pharisees, our Lord says ; it must not con- 
sist in the negative avoidance of evil, in the 
timidity and dread of slaves, or of the utilitarian 
who only seeks to avoid the consequences of sin. 
The motive by which we reject sin and desire 
righteousness must always be a positive one, not 
a utilitarian one. In the temptation in the gar- 
den what was a trial of love and trust the Evil 
One said should be a matter of selfish gain and 
experience. " Try it, and then you will know l v 
Alas for this careless system of morality, repeated 
in every form of ethics since the beginning ! It 

129 



130 SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 

is the typical temptation. Obey your father be- 
cause you see it is good for you ; lie is a sensible 
man, be holds the purse, you will be better off — 
instead of the primal instinct, reverence, love, 
obey. Self-will, passion and appetite are too 
strong, and bias the mind too much for us to be 
clear in our judgments. But " the judgments of 
the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 7 
About them there must be no debate. It cannot 
be a question of happiness or unhappiness, bene- 
fit or loss, but of the will of God. No conse- 
quences make a thing right or wrong. It is the 
will of God ; written on the conscience, then on 
tables of stone, then on the life of Christ, who 
came "to do Thy Will, O God." 

The infinite worth of this faith in a personal 
God, and desire towards His will, becomes more 
evident as we get near those who have it not. 
Such insolvable problems confront them ! For 
this faith in an unseen power, love, and redeem- 
ing grace has been worked into the very fibre of 
humanity. The agnostics vainly struggle to get 
out of it. It waylays them, as it were, for the 
ages are against them. 

In each age the sense of God — the great I Am 
— has been felt ; and through the Jewish culture 
He became the close friend and protector ; finally 
revealed as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. This evolution in the spirit world seems 
so luminous to me ; but what force has it to one 
who conceives all spiritual phenomena to be the 
result of material organization? 



SIXTH SUNDAY AFTEE TKIXITY 131 

Love's secrets are known only to love. The 
things which pass man's understanding are re- 
vealed to man's affections, even as a mother's 
love cannot be compassed by the imagination, 
but is only known to experience. To love alone 
belong the words l i perpetual, " ' ' steadfast. " 
Love alone can cast out those subtle dreads that 
cripple life, especially for sensitive natures, for 
love trusts entirely, and is obedient unto death. 

Pour into our hearts such love, we pray, that 
we may obtain Thy promises, by running the 
way of Thy commandments. May we ever re- 
member that it is not a mere doctrine to be un- 
derstood by the intellect, but that it is a life. 
Our Blessed Lord teaches us that if we bring a 
gift to the altar, and there remember that our 
brother has aught against us, we may not leave 
our gift until we are reconciled to our brother. 
We must be sure of our love towards man before 
we can be confident of our love towards God. 



THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEIXITY 

Collect. Lord of all power and might, who art the 
author a?id giver of all good things ; graft in our 
hearts the love of Thy name, increase in us true 
religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Thy 
great mercy keep us in the same ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Bom. vi. 19. 
Gospel. St. Mark viii. 1. 

The Love which we implored last Sunday is 
now to be grafted in our hearts, is to bring forth 
holiness, and the end " everlasting life." 

To-day might be called the Sunday of Growth, 
so closely do the lessons keep to that thought. As 
the graft is bound into the tree, so we by religion 
— binding back — are united to God ; there to be 
nourished in goodness, in the close tie of service 
— the bond of our culture. 

The Epistle shows the change which the love 
of God has wrought in us. Where we had been 
servants of sin, we are now servants of righteous- 
ness ; where the fruit of our action was to ripen 
in spiritual death, we now look for the harvest 
of true holiness. But the harvest is from the 
Giver of all good things. Paul may plant, and 
AidoHos water, but the vital forces are from 
above ; even as the wedding garment is the gift 

132 



SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEIXITY 133 

of His love who said, "Behold, I make all things 
new !:" 

To show the power of God to multiply our fee- 
ble forces and render them sufficient to the great 
end in view, we have the miracle of the few 
loaves, which became, in the hands of the Lord 
of Life, abundance and to spare. How perfectly 
the free gift of God is here taught. The Author 
and Giver of all good things multiplies the hand- 
ful of grain to fit the needs of His tender com- 
passion. "Without His compassion we would in- 
deed faint by the way ; for divers of us came 
from far when we turned to follow the Lord and 
Master whithersoever He should lead. But here 
in the wilderness we are satisfied. Our small 
stock of good traits, of good desires, become in 
His hands sufficient ; nourishment for the daily 
life and abundance to share with others. 



THE EIGHTH SUXDAY AFTER TRINITY 

Collect. God, whose never-failing providence ar< 

eth all things both in heave 
humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all 
hurtful things, and to give us those things which 
are profitable for us ; through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Bom. viii. 12. 

Gospel. St. Matt vii. 15. 

The Sunday of testing. If we are grafted into 
the life of God we cannot bring forth evil fruit. 
If we are the sons of God we must be led by the 
Spirit of God. A thousand things surround us ; 
we must distinguish what is hurtful to this new 
life we have entered upon, and choose those 
things which are profitable to it. 

"Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord. Lord. 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he 
that doeth the will of My Father which is in 
heaven." The essential point is to realize the 
end of it all : the self-sacrificing, loving surrender 
of our will to the Divine Will ; becoming one in 
the mystical body of Christ, whose dying was the 
type of our death to the world, whose cross is our 
cross, whose life is our life. 

There are times when this union with the divine 
comes home to the soul in an inexpressible way. 
So it comes to me in the phrase "joint heirs with 

134 



EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEIXITY 135 

Christ/' "if so be we suffer with Hira, we shall 
be glorified together." To act, to suffer, to enjoy 
with Hint, is to partake the divine life in every- 
thing. The everlasting Son of the Father came 
to show us that we are meant to be sons of God, 
not merely highly developed animals ; through 
His resurrection he reveals to us the coming 
powers, beyond what is possible to this flesh-hood. 
Deep within work the forces of life that tint a 
beautiful flower ; deep within live the mysterious 
forces that make the " King's daughter all glori- 
ous." Events lie with God. What we are to be, 
and where we are to be is His care ; we may not 
take anxious thought for the morrows, our part 
is to abide in Him. We only ask that God's will 
may be made more and more clear to us, until 
that " latter day, " when the mists shall roll away, 
and we shall know even as we are known of Him. 



THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 

Collect. Grant to us, Lor J, we beseech Thee, the spirit 
to think and do always such things as are right ; 
that we, who cannot do anything that is good 
without Thee, may by Thee be enabled to live 
accordi?ig to Thy will ; through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Cor. x. 1. 
Gospel. St. Luke xvi. 1. 

The Sunday of the wilderness life, of life as a 
pilgrimage. As the Hebrews were prepared by 
the trials of the wilderness, and welded into a 
nation before entering the promised land ; so we 
find ourselves here in preparation for the coming 
life, the future, for which the present opportuni- 
ties of work are given. The moment so quickly 
passes ; it holds in it the destiny of the future. 
Make to yourself mansions in that future for your 
soul. 

The men of this world are very often wiser than 
the men of faith. We throw away the present as 
an element of the future, and give ourselves up 
to vain dreams, instead of using the present as 
preparation, placing our life within the Divine 
Will, in all its services. 

Those who were overthrown in the wilderness 
of old were those who lusted after evil things, 

136 



NINTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 137 

those who spent their time in play, those who 
murmured. We "upon whom the ends of the 
world have come" should see more clearly that 
the children of wisdom ought to use this pilgrim- 
age through Time as a preparation for the ever- 
lasting habitations. 

Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, 
prepared himself by five years' test to see if he 
could depend on prayer for his religious needs, 
and for temporal necessities to carry out his aims. 
Then he went his way to take up his work, an 
ever developing work, part of an evolutionary 
process. His life was a use of opportunity, 
" projected efficiency, " as Kidd calls it, following 
on to know, forgetting things behind and pressing 
towards the mark. 

All Eternity to work in, but not one hour of 
time to lose, for it holds in it what eternity must 
carry on, or life is a failure. Sickness is not 
failure, poverty is not failure, death is not failure ; 
loss of faith is failure. 

" Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth 
take heed lest he fall." How much we need the 
spirit to think and do such things as are right, 
that we may be enabled to live here and now ac- 
cording to the divine will. " Behold we count 
them happy that endure ! " 



THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 

Collect. Let Thy merciful ears, Lord, be open to the 

prayers of Thy humble servants ; and that they 

may obtain their petitions make them to ask such 

things as shall please Thee ; through Jesus 

Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Cor. xii. 1. 
Gospel, St. Luke xix. 41. 

Prayer is the study of the day ; right desires 
which are sure to work out in right living. We 
ask that the Lord's spirit may teach us how to 
desire, that is to pray, that we may obtain a 
blessing and not a curse. Alas ! for Israel ; they 
did not recognize the day of visitation. They 
did not keep in mind why God had brought them 
out of Egypt, but corrupted themselves, first with 
a materialistic idolatry, then with a still worse 
hard pharisaic formality. The Temple was a den 
of thieves, the Pharisee thanked God that he was 
not as other men, and, blinded by pride, no longer 
" humble servants, the things which belonged to 
their peace 7 ' were hid from their eyes. What 
wonder that the Messiah who came to His own, 
and whom they received not, should have wept 
over the doomed city, left desolate because it did 
not know, could not see the spiritual gifts God 
was waiting to bestow. 

138 



TENTH SUXDAY AFTER TRINITY 139 

Let us look well to our privileges ; let us rise 
ever in ardent prayer, desiring to know what 
God wills us to become ; that we may never decline 
from any high calling. Let us, each one of us, 
beseech Him, " Lord clear out the evil from my 
soul, which should be the house of prayer ; and 
teach daily in this Thy temple, made more fit to 
shelter Thee. " 

The mediation of our Blessed Lord makes all 
our worthiness in prayer, the presence of the Spirit 
of God gives all our prevailing power. Our Lord 
through the Spirit reveals the love of the Father 
towards us ; He tells us that the Father seeks our 
supplications. We are so conscious of sin, of 
imperfection, of a sadly intermittent spirituality 
at best, that belief in such personal love going 
out from the divine nature towards us must be 
ever a matter of faith. 

To look through the intervening instrumentali- 
ties to the Father of all, who is the Force in all, 
is the faith of the humble, ignorant Christian, and 
also of the learned scientist. How little does 
the latter know, compared with what he does not 
know ! He is puzzled by the laws that govern a 
cyclone, or the phenomena of earthquake or vol- 
cano. How can he know the great cycle of the 
Cosmos, the interdependencies of myriad worlds 
on worlds ? 

And yet the simple soul who is not perplexed 
by u the reign of law " or the impossibility of 
miracle, approaches the Divine Giver in the 
same way as the wise and learned — the way of 



140 TEXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 

faith, love and trust in a Father. The way in 
which our Lord prayed in Gethseniane, and 
knew He was answered, though the Cup passed 
not from Him. 

So we pray : for sunshine or rain, for plenty, 
for health, for the means of living, for daily food. 
Christianity has enlarged the sphere of prayer, 
since it brought God nearer to us. Do we cor- 
respond to the grace of God in us ? Diversities 
of operations, but the same Spirit ; manifold in 
gifts, differing in every one. The road-mender 
can feel with St. Peter the sweetness of u the 
precious promises' 7 : the poet thrills with delight 
at the largeness of St. Paul's outlook ; the prac- 
tical man rejoices in the ethics of St. James and 
the loftiest mystic finds room for his soul in the 
symbolism of St. John. Each apostle corre- 
sponded to the grace of God in his various gifts. 



THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER 
TRINITY 

Collect. God, who declarest Thy almighty power 
chiefly in showing mercy and pity ; mercifully 
grant to us such a measure of Thy grace, that 
we, running the zvay of Thy commandments, may 
obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made par- 
takers of Thy heavenly treasure ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Cor. xv. 1. 
Gospel. St. Luke xviii. 9. 

St. Paul suras up for us to-day the facts of the 
Gospel, on which firm foundation we stand. We 
keep them in memory, we recognize the grace 
that flows from them, and the gracious promises 
they imply. Before that revelation of God's 
mercy and pity towards us we are as the publi- 
can who could only say, ''God be merciful to 
me a sinner." Before it St. Paul felt himself not 
meet to be called an apostle, though he had an- 
swered the call of the facts of Christ's life in so 
royal a way. { l By the grace of God I am what 
I am," said that mighty saint; truly we need 
large measures of that grace in running the way 
of God's commandments ! 

Grace to suffer. Pain is bound up with all 
great changes, all advance in the good of hu- 
141 



142 ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 

inanity. We desire deliverance from no pain 
which. God ordains for our furtherance, and yet 
when in entire submission we pray to be merci- 
fully delivered, we ask nothing that is adverse to 
Him. It reminds me of Mrs. Hawthorne, watch- 
ing by the bedside of her only child, whom she 
supposed dying. Going to the window, to gaze 
at the infinity of stars, she submitted her soul ut- 
terly to God's will. She returned to find her 
child reviving ; in God's infinite mercy spared. 
Did she rest in secondary causes? No, on her 
knees she lifted up her soul in an ecstasy of 
thanksgiving. 

The greatest man is an atom in the great plan : 
the least of us is loved by the Father, by whom 
the hairs of our head are numbered. This double 
vision, these two contrasted truths are to be held 
together. Pain is the inevitable attendant of de- 
velopment, national or individual. The Love 
that ordained this pain stands ready to give 
sympathy, support, meaning, worth and reward 
to it all. 

The grace to desire the heavenly treasures we 
need, we, who are so absorbed in the passing 
show. One illusion after another passes : this 
work to-day is engaging, and commands our en- 
ergy, to-morrow — what is left of its results'? 
Materially, perhaps nothing remains ; but if by 
it we have gained spiritual treasure, the result is 
unending gain. The schoolgirl does the mathe- 
matical problem required, and never opens her 
arithmetic again, but by it she has gained mental 



ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTEK TEIXITY 143 

acuteness, control over lier attention, and clarity 
of mind ; these are worth all the effort involved. 
" Time's vestures," as CarljTe calls them, fade 
away ; what they enclose grows, and fits itself 
for other vestures. In the life of the individual, 
as in world history, the Truth makes man free of 
the mortality of the passing form. 

Embrace the promises. We hear them, we be- 
lieve them, yes, as we believe in Timbuctoo or 
China, but they do not much affect us, we do not 
salute them as we do the headlands of our native 
land as we draw near, or the face of a dear friend 
as it apx3roaches in the distance. This is the 
other half of faith, "the substance of things 
hoped for." 



THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who art al- 
ways more ready to hear than we to pray, and art 
wont to give more than either we desire or de- 
serve ; pour down upon us the abundance of Thy 
mercy ; forgiving us those things whereof our 
conscience is afraid, and giving us those good 
things which we are not worthy to ask, but 
through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, 
Thy Son, our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. 2 Cor. iii. 4. 
Gospel. St. Mark vii. 31. 

The abundance of God's mercy is the glori- 
ous contemplation for to-day. The free Gift of 
Christ's humanity reveals to us our own glory. 
While we are yet sinners Christ comes to His 
own ; He calls, loves, blesses, strengthens, and 
brings by His indwelling spirit " many sons unto 
glory. " In Him, seeking to be like Him, we ob- 
tain more than we deserve, more than we know 
how to desire. 

The first consciousness of the Divine Presence 
brings with it a sense of sin. We come to 
Mt. Sinai before we reach Mt. Calvary. The 
" don't' 7 comes before the higher "-do" of the 
Gospel. Against the harmony of law our recre- 
ant will raises protest and discord. Ah ! who 

144 



TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTEE TEINITY 145 

has not felt this ? The close pressure of command, 
as it were a clamp, and the self-assertion to rebel, 
as if it were a right. Thus, under the name of 
liberty, experience or experiment license invade 
life : and when we fall we are indeed ashamed, un- 
til habit hardens, and we find ourselves no longer 
in the beautiful land of loving obedience, that 
Golden Age, which every nation keeps enshrined 
in its traditions because the element of it is in 
human hearts. It seems that we must have the 
flaming sword of a lost paradise barring the path 
before we turn to the tree of Life. The kingdom 
of heaven is entered after repentance. 

Thus the ministry of condemnation leads us 
to the ministry of the Spirit. When we feel, 
with St. Paul, "O wretched man that I am!" 
we will be able to echo his triumphant claim, " I 
can do all things through Christ who strengthen- 
ed me" ! As we believe so we appropriate. 
This is the measure. 

By every insistence of words the lessons of the 
day strive to put before the soul the sense of 
abundance of blessing in God, waiting for our 
acceptance. He " who doeth all things well," 
who makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak, is 
waiting to give us more than we either desire or 
deserve. The ministration of the Spirit, the reign 
of righteousness is the glorious work of the pres- 
ent, to which all other systems were only the 
preparation. 

Time's vesture changes, Eighteousness is ever 
the same. Its source is in the High and Holy 



146 TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 

One, who inhabitetli Eternity. The materials of 
the sun and stars, we are told by the spectrum, 
are the same as of our own planet. So it is in the 
spiritual universe : there can be no world where 
truth, purity, unselfishness, tenderness, and love 
shall not be the rule, the aim of the soul, and the 
saving grace of God. 



THE THIETEENTH SUNDAY AFTEE 
TEINITY 

Collect. Almighty and merciful God, of whose only gift 
it cometh that Thy faithful people do unto Thee 
true and laudable service ; grant, we beseech 
Thee, that we may so faithfully serve Thee in 
this life, that we fail not finally to attain Thy 
heavenly promises ; through the merits of Jesus 
Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle. Gal. iii. 16. 
Gospel. St. Luke x. 23. 

The Sunday of Service. Iu the Epistle the 
service of the Law, and the covenant made to the 
servants under the Law is contrasted with the 
promises by faith of Jesus Christ, given to them 
that believe. The gift of God in His Son, the 
highest revelation, came when men were fitted 
for it, but the preparation extended through the 
ages. Law convinced man of disobedience ; the 
Crucifixion convinced man of sin ; for the Cross 
is at once the Accusation and the Atonement, the 
measure of man's guilt, and the measure of God's 
love. 

Divine Love lifted on the Cross — humanity 
transfigured in the Son of Man is the final evolu- 
tion. "The root out of a dry ground " bears the 
leaves that are for the healing of the nations. 

117 



US THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY 

The Greek's culture of outward beauty had 
failed to reveal holiness. "If there had been a 
law given that could have given Lite, verily 
righteousness should have been by the law of 
Moses " ; but it was only a schoolmaster to bring 
us to Christ. 

The Truth of God is bound up in all the imper- 
fect manifestations of mankind, and from time to 
time it throws off the hampering vestures. By 
great revolutions the race is taught, and the 
"Zeit-geist" ever changes. 

Dante's imagination was of his age. concrete, 
limited, literal, with deep inner significance. 
St. Thomas Aquinas, belonging to the same age. 
gives in his metaphysical theology what Dante 
implied in his vision. Milton was of the Puritan 
age. feeling the glow of the renaissance reaction 
from asceticism towards sensuous beauty, yet 
with the moral quickening of a sense oi sin. which 
had been overlaid by ceremony, philosophy, and 
the literalism of the schoolmen. For us there is 
doubtless further transition. To whom shall we 
go for the word of truth that endures I To whom 
save Thee. O Christ, who hast the words of 
eternal life ! 

"AVhat shall I do." asks the lawyer, "to in- 
herit eternal life ! " On the deep foundations of 
the moral law Jesus grounds " true and laudable 
service." " Love thy God with heart, soul, mind 
and strength, and thy neighbour as thyself." 
Then comes the burning question of modern life, 
" Who is mv neighbour ! " The immortal story 



THE THIRTEENTH SUXDAY 149 

of the Samaritan follows, and the command— 
" Go, and do thou likewise. 7 ' 

We must never forget that the first Command- 
ment remains the first. To love God — that is the 
foundation, and then of His grace it comes that 
we may serve Him in serving our neighbour. 



THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTEE 
TRINITY 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us 
the increase offaith % hope and char;:; ; and that 

we may obtain that which Thou dost pro*'.:::, 
make us to love that which Thou dost command ; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amex. 

Epistle. Gal. v. 16. 
Gospel. St. Luke xvii. 11. 

To-day we study the characteristics of the inner 
life — the life of the Spirit. Led by the Spirit of 
God the flesh has no longer dominion over us, 
and we are no longer under the Law. The Truth 
has made us free indeed. What part can we 
longer have in those things of which we are 
ashamed ! St. Paul gives the roll-call of the 
sins of the flesh and of the mind which we must 
abhor. They who do these things belong to 
quite another household ; whose mark is not 
truth, or the love of it ; whose atmosphere could 
not be that of liberty, for the bondage of evil is 
upon all its children. And we — which of the 
two great households have we chosen to join ! I 
cannot find that Jesus offers a third. u Ye are 
of your Father," said Jesus to the Pharisees. "I 
speak the words of My Father : if ye had known 
Him, ye would believe in Me." 

Turning from this dark picture St. Paul takes 
the white light of truth, breaks it up as in a 

150 



THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY 151 

prism, and shows us the primal colours of right- 
eousness : love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- 
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; 
against such there is indeed no law. 

This spontaneity of the spiritual life is shown 
in the Gospel by the leper who was cleansed. 
Our Lord told the ten lepers to show themselves 
to the priests, which was the first prescribed duty 
of the cured from contagious malady. They went 
obediently and in faith. One returned to give 
glory to God, to fall on his face before the Lord 
of Life, postponing the fulfillment of the Jewish 
law until he had given expression to his thank- 
ful, rejoicing spirit. " The Father seeketh such 
to worship Him.' 7 

This abundance of high emotion, this giving 
of thauks, as we say in the service of the Eucha- 
rist, ''in all places and at all times, n is a charac- 
teristic of the quickened spirit. Can a soul by 
nature thin of character, and light on the 
weights, become enriched and vital ? Surely the 
soul is subject in spiritual matters to the same 
processes which are seen in the body. Food, 
and hygienic conditions build up the body ; so 
the most pale and sickly soul, obtaining the u in- 
crease of faith, hope and love," can grow more 
and more to "the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ. n 

Each Sunday's lessons make us know that our 
true religion is a life, not a mere creed, not only 
a conviction, though convictions must be, but a 
life. 



THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTEE 

TEIXITY 

Collect. Keep, we beseech Thee, Lord, Thy Church 
with Thy perpetual mercy ; and because the 
frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep 
us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and 
lead us to all things prof table to our salvation ; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Gal. vi. 11. 
Gospel. St. Matt. vi. 2-4. 

The Sunday of Decision. The point of cleav- 
age, Christ or the world, God or Mammon. Hu- 
man frailty, stumbling on the downward path, 
or the "new creature," unfolding like a lily in 
the light. Around that blessed word "new/' 
what lights are ever playing ! AVe see the early 
dew of morning glistening, we are clothed anew 
in the fresh white garments the soul finds at the 
Eucharistic feast : strength is renewed like the 
eagle's. Jesus lifts us out of the grooves into 
which human life tends to run : the carking 
cares, the paralyzing fears, and gives us the Eule 
of the new life : 4> Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God and His Kighteousness.' 7 

152 



THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY 153 

This we know to be the grandeur of the soul — 
obedience to the higher law which claims pre- 
cedence of lower laws ; as when it makes comfort, 
even health, give way to duties above those to 
the body. 

We see Jacob, so full of the u frailties of man/' 
yet desiring higher things, sensitive to the voice 
of the spirit ; this was the nature that vindicated 
his call. We see it in his dream as he went to 
Laban, in the quality of his love for Eachel ; 
most of all in that night of agonized prayer, when 
he wrestled with the angel. After that we are 
not surprised at the beautiful words and loving 
deeds of his later life. The noble dignity of the 
man who in youth had seen the angels ascending 
and descending between earth and heaven, made 
it fitting that he should bless Pharaoh, king of 
the mightiest nation upon earth, even when he 
was dependent on his bounty. 

But though we desire the best things, though 
we have set our feet to run the way of God's com- 
mandments, though we have entered the new life, 
how much we need to implore God's perpetual 
mercy, and renewal day by day. As we love 
more, we see more our undesert. The Eucha- 
ristic Feast is not kept when we feel that we are 
pretty good sort of people after all, but only 
when we recognize how poor our lives are, how 
unequal our tempers, how worldly our aims. 
What heights rise above us ! What work unbe- 
gun lies about us ! 

Frederick Dennison Maurice was one of those 



154 THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY 

who are ever seeking to do God's service, in 
preparation for the higher service of the heav- 
enly kingdom ; he always felt that eternal life 
was Now, and ever sought love, more love 
towards God and man ; but in dying, the heart 
of his deep humility was seen. "Lord, be merci- 
ful to me a sinner ! ' ' 



THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTEK 
TEIjSTITY 

Collect. Lord, we beseech Thee, let Thy continual 
pity cleanse and defend Thy Church ; and be- 
cause it cannot continue in safety without Thy 
succour, preserve it evermore by Thy help and 
goodness ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Epistle. Eph. iii. 13. 
Gospel. St. Luke vii. 11. 

The infinite pity of God is the theme of the 
day. We beseech His compassion for inward 
cleansing and outward defense. We have need of 
succour, life is set with dangers ; the mere presence 
of death as the inevitable end throws a mist of 
sadness over existence, and we seem like the 
flowers of grass, that bloom for a day, and at 
evening are cut down and withered. From the 
gate of every city the beloved dead are carried to 
their last rest. How touching is the picture 
presented us in the Gospel where the small train 
of mourners meet Him who came to reveal the 
heart of God to us. " And when the Lord saw 
her He had compassion on her.' 7 

We know that God's infinite pity surrounds us 
like the air we breathe. Into that element the 
prayer of St. Paul rises in impassioned fervour, 

155 



156 THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY 

like a strong winged angel, into higher and 
higher levels of petition until he loses himself in 
the fullness of God. 

Strange paradox the Church puts before us. 
The pathos of human death, of mothers' grief, of 
the tribulations suffered by a servant of God — and 
yet — the sure confidence, the high hope, the sense 
of absolute security shown in the great prayer of 
St. Paul. 

We are not left lonely in a darkening world. 
The whole family in heaven and earth is named 
of our Father. Christ, the Resurrection and the 
Life, takes us by the hand. 

Fear, distrust, excess of grief, doubt of God's 
love, these are the dark and murky places of the 
soul ; like times of panic, when reason itself fails 
to support us, and waves and billows cover all 
the well-known headlands and the rock of safety. 

Then the spirit teaches us that Hope is the 
soul's finest courage. Trust in God is the essence 
of this hope. It comes from no philosophy. It 
springs from Faith: and, being "rooted and 
grounded in love " ascends with the prayer of the 
Apostle, claiming glory in tribulation, knowing 
that " the sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall 
be revealed in us." 



THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTEE 
TEINITY 

Collect. Lord, we pray Thee that Thy grace may al- 
ways prevent and follow us> and make us contin- 
ually to be given to all good works ; through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Eph. iv. 1. 
Gospel. St. Luke xiv. 1. 

The lesson of Humility is ours to-day. We see 
what is the etiquette of the heavenly Court, the 
form of courtesy pleasing to the King. We are 
to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are 
called u in all lowliness and meekness, forbearing 
one another in love, keeping the bond of peace. 7 ' 
These are the fundamentals of good breeding ; 
these are the instincts of the magnanimous, these 
are the precepts of Christ. 

How many of us put on good manners as a 
dress, as fine clothes are often arranged to hide 
deformed bodies ! Better the dress than the ugli- 
ness ; but how much more beautiful the dress that 
follows the lines of natural beauty, the manners 
that come from within, which society formulates 
into the letter of social custom, at the same time 
often losing the proper spirit. 

157 



158 THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY 

ChoosiDg the chief places, elbowing and jostling 
for the highest rooms, ill become the guests of 
the Eternal Host at whose feast we have been 
graciously bidden. We are all one : the exaltation 
of one is the exaltation of all. The unity of our 
race, and the higher unity of the Church, one 
Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, this is the high 
thought of God for humanity : the path He fore- 
ordained that we should w r alk in. 

The gracious manners of the followers of Christ 
are best learned by those who preserve the disci- 
pline and order of the Church's teaching. A 
religion which considers all times alike, which 
gets rid of stated seasons, stated preparation, 
stated observance comes finally to that vague 
generality in religious emotion which holds, in 
my mind, the same relation to the divine love 
that the lack of marriage ceremonies brings to 
human love. 

There may be slaves of the form of church 
service, to whom words and motions, once full 
of true subordination and loyal service, are now 
only a badge of caste. There is absence of power 
in such an " ecclesiastical habit, " as Stanley calls 
it ; and yet habit and custom in religion, as in 
human love, is a great arch to span the seething 
immensity of human passion and desire. 

Some hearts are naturally large ; all may be 
made large by the cultivation of large thoughts, 
large aims, and noble loves. No cultivation can 
be done spasmodically ; it needs daily training to 
attain anything in art or science, in physical 



THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY 159 

strength or mental ability. "We should accept 
with gladness the opportunities for the culture of 
the spirit which the Church gives, for there is so 
much in our daily life to draw our hearts away 
from "the things which are eternal. " 



THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTEE 
TEINITY 

Collect. Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace 

to withstand the temptations of the world, the 

flesh, and the devil ; and with pure hearts and 

minds to follow Thee, the only God ; through 

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. 1 Cor. i. 4. 
Gospel. St. Matt. xxii. 34. 

To-day we ask for grace to keep our Baptismal 
vow. The testimony of Christ is to be confirmed 
in us. The Gospel of the day shows what that 
testimony was. Love to God ; love to our neigh- 
bour. This was the great enunciation of the 
positiveness of Christianity, as against the com- 
parative negativeness of the Ten Commandments, 
which nevertheless remain in the Ark of the 
Covenant. 

The grace of God, enriching us, filling us, 
dominating our whole being, is far better defense 
against the solicitations of the world, the flesh 
and the devil than any negative prohibition. 
Homer makes the goddess counsel Ulysses against 
the Sirens : 

" Firm to the mast with chains thyself be bound, 
Nor trust thy virtue to the enchanting sound. 
If, mad with transport, freedom thou demand, 
Be every fetter strain 'd, and added band to band." 
160 



THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY 161 

But to listen to the thrilling song of Orpheus is 
a greater, a nobler way to be deaf to the Siren's 
voice, and the essence of Christian teaching is 
always positive. 

The apotheosis of doubt, which prevails in so 
many domains of thought in the present day, is 
most lamentable. Negation and denial are such 
distorted results of the operations of our God- 
given reason. Faith, and its constant growth as 
a faculty of the soul, is the condition of sane, 
healthy, purposeful living. It is the ozone of the 
spirit. Through that pure and life-giving medium 
the grace of God comes to us by every relation- 
ship, and in every event of life ; mother's loving 
guidance, home influences, school discipline and 
ideals, church work, and all the many oppor- 
tunities of helping our fellow men. Truly Faith 
is the gift of God. But we must seek it, we must 
treasure it, and cultivate it, in hearts and minds 
made pure by its presence. So shall we be found 
" blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.'' 



THE NTRBTEEXTH SUNDAY AFTER 

TRINITY 

Collect. G;d,fora:r.u;h .:: :;/;';.:; Thee :,: .:"■: ;:: 
able to p lease T ; ; ■ ■ ; -: .-' -/; * i - '.\ g " -* "> : : : : .: : 7 :; 
Holy Spirit may in all things direct umd rule our 
hearts ; through Jesus Christ nor lsrm\ Ami:.". 

Epistle. Eph. iv. 17. 
Gospel. St Matt ix. 1. 

The Sunday of Dependence. The heroes of all 
ages leaned on the divine, the power outside of 
themselves. Hector, Dlysses, Telernachus looked 
above themselves for guidance, and leaned not n 
their own understanding. Wordsworth Lc m 

of this universal law of great living, arraigned hi 3 
utilitarian age, vrirh its infidel tendencies : 

" The world is too much w::h us : late and soon. 
Getting and spending we L\v waste on: powers : 
. . . Great God ! I'd rather be 
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn. 
So might I. standing on this pleasant lea. 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ; 
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed hom." 

To lean on yourself alone is poverty, is self-ism. 

egoism. Descartes taught egoism ; I am sure that 

162 ~ 



THE XIXETEEXTH STTNDAY 163 

Spencer and Mill teach it, even while throwing 
the onus of it on what they are pleased to call 
self-interested goodness, something to get in 
another world. Xo; something to be in this, 
11 through Christ strengthening me," 

The first requisite is to feel your need of Divine 
aid. The first beatitude is to the poor in spirit. 
those who are conscious of need. How wise the 
church builders are who put the Font near the 
entrance of the church. For it speaks of that 
first step in the spiritual life, the confession of 
our greatest need, which only God can meet — the 
forgiveness of sins. The power to forgive sins. 
as part of Christ's Godhead, was justified in the 
miracle of the healing of the palsied man ; but 
only symbolized in the outward act. We get an 
idea of how the sinful must appear before the 
seeing eye of God, when we realize that to Christ 
the sick man's paralysis of soul was far more ap- 
pealing to His compassion than the feebleness of 
body. "Son, be of good cheer !" In the glow 
of those tender words it should not be hard for 
us to forgive others, even as God for Christ's sake 
has forgiven us. 

The evidence of the healing was shown by the 
:?Jytie s power to obey the.Lord's command, 
"Arise, and walk:*' So those who have had 
their sins forgiven must go forward. There 
is no standing still. Progress — or degeneracy. 
"Have ye forgotten that ye were cleansed from 
your old sins?" is St. Peter's accusing question 
to those who were not adding virtue, and knowl- 



1G4 THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY 

edge, and loving kindness to their faith — who 
did not go on. Test yourself by conduct, is the 
burden of the Epistle. Those things that please 
God are there enumerated : those things which 
grieve the Holy Spirit of God are pictured. Our 
hearts, capable of both ways of living, cry out 
for guidance through the maze of human pas- 
sions, for rule in all the storms of life. 






THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER 
TKIMTY 

Collect. Almighty and most merciful God, of Thy 
bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from 
all things that may hurt us ; that we, being 
ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully ac- 
complish those things which Thou commandest ; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Eph. v. 15. 
Gospel. St. Matt. xxii. 1. 

The Sunday of readiness. Cheerfully accom- 
plishing, with body and spirit made ready, has 
such an uplifting sound. We come as to a noble 
feast. We feel that all things are ready ; that 
the wedding garment is prepared, even for the 
careless, who were compelled to come in. Surely 
we who have long known and loved the Giver of 
the Feast will not fail to be there. Some are of 
those who "made light" of the invitation of the 
King, some are actively hostile, and others, like 
the speechless one, from indifference or self-satis- 
faction fail to clothe themselves in the wedding 
garment provided by the bountiful Host. These 
are they who are not worthy ; their punishment 

165 



166 THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY 

is banishment from the face of the King. Pun- 
cheon's definition of hell is never to be forgotten. 
Not the fire and brimstone — men have sung in 
flames ; not the companionship of devils— there 
is an energy of soul that might assert itself 
against that; but " everlasting destruction from 
the presence of the Lord, and from the power of 
His might," to wander otf darkling, never to re- 
turn — this is hell. 

How mysterious are the choices of God ! We 
often fail to see why He used this man instead 
of another to accomplish His purposes. Some 
"take the kingdom by force," some are called, 
and some compelled. 

We cannot understand His ways. Our plans 
are not His. Many whose gifts and powers mark 
them out for large influence over their fellow men, 
are set aside, and from the highway and hedges 
God brings His chosen instrument to do His will. 
Peter the Hermit moved a world Crusade ; the 
little Corporal fused Europe in the white heat of 
democratic principles. 

As if to relieve our awe in the contemplation 
of God's judgments shown in the Gospel, we are 
given a little vignette in the Epistle of simplicity 
and directness in the circumspect walk of the 
wise. That narrow way by which the redeemed 
of the Lord find their way through the sea of 
God's mysterious purposes. Temperate in life, 
filled with the Spirit, singing and making nielody 
in their hearts, understanding what the will of 
the Lord is and giving thanks, they come, His 



THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY 167 

chosen, to the high feast of their King. The sea 
will never overflow their pathway, and they shall 
sing the song u of Moses and the Lamb" : the 
song which none but they can sing. 



THE TWENTY-MEST SUXDAT AFTER 
TKINITY 

Collect. Grant, we beseech Thee, merciful Lord, to 
Thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they 
may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve 
Thee with a quiet mind ; through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Epli. vi. 10. 
Gospel. St. John iv. 46. 

Peace — our Lord's last legacy ; like the wine 
at the marriage feast, the last and best gift ; 
most comforting when it comes as the privilege 
of age, resulting from growing intimacy with 
God. 

Peace after conflict — even peace during con- 
flict. The quiet mind, clothed in the panoply of 
the spirit so beautifully described in the Epistle, 
is able to preserve balance of effort, absence of 
friction and absolute trust in our Leader. That 
trust is shown in the nobleman, who took no 
part in the cravings of the populace for signs 
and wonders, but simply said, " Sir. come down, 
ere my child die. ,? Our Leader has been with 
us in so many battles, afflictions and trials that 

168 






THE TWEXTY-FIBST SUNDAY 169 

His sympathy becomes intensely realized ; as 
that of a lifelong friend, who understands us so 
well that no words need be spoken. 

There is a little poem called " Life's Weav- 
ing,'' which comes to my memory, as presenting 
in imagery this sense of a " quiet mind," pre- 
served through all life's trials. In it we are 
given our place at Life's loom, and our work set 
before us. The pattern is first worked at with 
joy and gladness ; then the design disappears, 
but the work must go on, though the plan be 
but dimly seen ; we only know that the Master 
sees the pattern and directs us still. Kow its 
size is beyond our ken, and where we once 
moved confidently we watch and wait and 
labour ; ever more and more sure that the Artist 
will put our small effort in His own great plan, 
if done according to His Will. 

We come direct to God j we pray, we cannot 
fully understand ; we know there are intermediate 
workings ; but our soul meets God, our Father, 
and we are at peace. 

This profound faith cometh not of men. It is 
God's gift to the tried Christian. A Faith that 
comes by meditation, deep and purposeful medi- 
tation, by which we get out of the temporary 
circumstance, and into the Presence of God — the 
Shadow of the Almighty. 

We, the " faithful people," who make the 
petition of the Collect, feel ourselves one with 
the faithful who have gone before. As earth's 
atmosphere produces all the glorious beauties of 



170 THE TWENTY-FIRST SUXDAY 

colour, light and shade, so the irradiated souls of 
the Church, militant and triumphant, are an at- 
mosphere manifesting the glory of God, reflecting 
the work of the Spirit, and shedding abroad the 
infinite love of Christ. 



THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTEE 
• TKINITY 

Collect. Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy household 
the Church in continual godliness ; that through 
Thy protection it may be free from all adversi- 
ties ■, and devoutly given to serve Thee in good 
works, to the glory of Thy Name ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord, Amen. 

Epistle. Phil. i. 3. 
Gospel. St. Matt, xviii. 21. 

The Sunday of the Household, the Church, which 
desires to serve God devoutly. How closely we 
draw near to each other to-day, in drawing near 
to Him, the Head of our Household ; in realizing 
the glory of service — first to Him, then to those 
that are His. Not two forms of service, but one ; 
" forasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, 
My brethren, ye did it unto Me." 

The hero of the Epistle, too, comes before us in 
a vivid ray of the central glory. He writes to 
those beloved Philippians " being confident of 
this very thing, that He which hath begun a good 
work in you, will perform it unto the end ; inas- 
much as both in my bonds, and in the defense of the 
Gospel ye are partakers of my grace " — that grace 

171 



172 THE TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY 

of suffering for Christ's sake. How this privilege 
of suffering is wrought, like a golden thread, 
throughout the whole Epistle ! Nothing cements 
hearts like communion in effort where effort is 
painful. Grief always draws us nearer each other 
than joy ; but no grief draws human souls like 
the higher pain of self-sacrifice for the sake of the 
Household of God. Afar we contemplate the 
heights of soul reached by St. Paul, St. Bernard, 
St. Peter, or St. Anselm. But in spite of our fee- 
bler life we may hold communion with them, and 
count our small, infinitesimal sacrifices for the 
good of our fellows u all joy," as we devoutly serve 
God in good works ; for we are of one Church, of 
one Household. 

That communion of Saints gives something to 
the soul which we cannot receive from the com- 
panionship of those about us. Intercourse with 
our generation may brighten our minds, may 
strengthen our principles ; but the inner springs 
of life are fed in solitude, through monitions from 
the unseen. Like "Betreats," always used by 
the saints, our quiet moments alone relieve the 
strain of our mechanical age, as Carlyle called it. 

Nevertheless our own age is the one in which 
we must work, and in which we must find our life 
— even life eternal. So we ask the practical 
question, "What is the badge by which in this 
life the Household are marked?" Our Lord 
answers in the Gospel : by forgiving love. " Until 
seventy times seven. n Forget as well as forgive. 
"Shouldst thou not also have had compassion 



THE TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY 173 

on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on 
thee?" 

" Write your injuries in water, your benefits 
on marble." 

This is continual Godlikeness ; this is fellow- 
ship in the Gospel. 



THE TWENTY-THTED SUNDAY AFTEE 
TEINITY 

Collect. God, our refuge and strength, who art the 
author of all godliness ; be ready, we beseech 
Thee, to hear the devout prayers of Thy Church ; 
and grant that those things which we ask faith- 
fully we may obtain effectually ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Phil. iii. 17. 

Gospel. St. Matt. xxii. 15. 

Our heavenly citizenship is contrasted to-day 
with the claims of earthly things. Our " conver- 
sation," that amid which we live, are intimate, 
conversant or familiar with, is raised to heavenly 
places in Christ Jesus. 

St. Paul says of those among us who "mind 
earthly things" that they glory in that which 
should be their shame. Whoso places his all 
in Csesar's coffer is sure to fall into poverty. No 
natural need of the bodily life but deteriorates 
the soul if made an end in itself. The need of 
food can become the craving of the gluttonous, 
the refreshment of sleep can become a snare of 
indolence, leading to general negligence. The 
body, which needs to be transformed by the re- 
newing of the mind, tends to degradation when- 
ever its demands are made all-absorbing. 

174 



THE TWEXTY-THIED SUNDAY 175 

Our Lord helps to get us out of any tangle of 
the mind, or sophistry we may be tempted into 
when difficult questions come up in our lives, 
concerning what is due the present hour, and 
what we owe to eternal considerations. 

There is very little danger that we will not give 
our tribute to Caesar. The amenities of life will 
not be discarded by us. Very few really wish to 
be eccentric, and violate the due requirements of 
, Caesar ; though they may be lazy and not care to 
meet them. Caesar gives his rewards promptly 
to those who serve him, as we all know and can 
see. 

But there is another service. Our God calls us 
to that, and Him we cannot see. Since as yet we 
only know Him by faith, by faith alone we enter 
into the world of His requirements. That high 
and noble faculty of the soul atrophies by disuse. 
It works in an unseen world and we have to strive 
to enter that gate. ^Ve have to be kind to the 
ungrateful, and the disagreeable ; we have to 
give, hoping for nothing again ; the coat often 
has to go, and sometimes we attain to letting our 
cloak go also! " Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto the least of these, My brethren, ye have 
done it unto Me." 

This it is to pay tribute, or what is due unto 
God. For Jesus has given us our ideal, "that 
ye may be like your Father in heaven." 



THE TWENTY-FOUETH SUNDAY AFTEE 
TEINITY 

Collect. O Lord, we beseech Thee, absolve Thy people 
from their offenses ; that through Thy bountiful 
goodness we may be delivered from the bands of 
those sins, which by our frailty we have com- 
mitted. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for 
Jesus Christ's sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour. 
Amen. 

Epistle. Col. i. 3. 
Gospel. St. Matt, ix. 18. 

The Sunday of Absolution. We pray God to 
absolve, to loosen the bands, to break down the 
power of inbred sin, and let the captive wholly 
free; and so make us "meet to be partakers of 
the inheritors of the saints in light. 7 ' 

Are we meet ? The difference of one angle 
from another is a difference of direction. Now, 
is our departure right, are we turned to the Sun 
of Eighteousness ? If not, the further on we go, 
the wider will be our distance from Him who is 
our light and life. 

God calls us to be a part of the harmony of His 
universe, that we who have passed out of the stream 
of mere animal life may become a part of the 
"moral cosmic force," as some modern philoso- 
phers call it. I often wonder what good it does 

176 



THE TWENTY FOUETH SUNDAY 177 

to give scientific paraphrases of catholic truth. 
Some minds, perhaps^ which have been thrown 
out of the old formulas, return with intenser con- 
viction to the modern phrasing. William II 
says, "I place myself, my empire, and people 
beneath the sign of the Cross, as of old the only 
doctrine which means continual progression. 77 
What the Emperor calls continual progression 
others name " Projected efficiency P ; both are the 
working of "moral cosmic force," a force which 
Christians prefer to call God's Will. 

That Will is not carried out by earthly gain 
and justified by earthly rewards ; but it is main- 
tained through evil report and apparent defeat ; 
lower demands being constantly set aside, in 
order that the evolution of righteousness may go 
on. 

When man fails to uphold God's ideal for the 
race, he sins. To slip back on the upward road 
is sin. How easily we find excuse for our frailty, 
in circumstances, some infelicity of temperament, 
some one, or something — anything but acknowl- 
edge our own weakness, or recreant will. 

When we feel the pressure of the bands of sins 
which our frailty has allowed us to commit, how 
we enter into the feelings of the sick woman who 
said within herself, "If I may but touch the 
hem of His garment " ! 

Ah ! those words are weakened by talking 
ibout them ; but ever remain embalmed in the 
1 earts of those who have indeed drawn near, and 
b *en healed. 



178 THE TWENTY-FOUETH SUNDAY 

In the Epistle is given a picture of the New 
Life after we have been raised from the death of 
sin, as the little maid was raised by our Lord's 
gracious hand. A life of activity, of increasing 
knowledge, of fruitfulness in every good work ; 
strengthened by God's might, patient, long-suf- 
fering, glad — this is the only life meet to be lived 
by us, as we journey to the light, where the Saints 
have entered before us into their inheritance. 



THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTEE 
TBINITY 

Collect. Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills 
of Thy faithful people ; that they, plenteously 
bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by 
Thee be plenteously rewarded ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Epistle. Jer. xxiii. 5. 
Gospel. St. John vi. 5. 

The Lord our Eighteousuess ! Wonderful 
prophecy — foreshadowing our Lord's first com- 
ing ; ineffable Name — which we must plead, 
when at His second coming to judge the world 
we stand before Him. 

We seek to judge the past, on this the last 
Sunday of the Church's year, placing our lives 
beside the One Life, the life of Him who came to 
our world from the bosom of the Father, to show 
us humanity at its highest. 

In former dispensations men were taught by 
precept, by ritual, by prophets, jurists and in- 
stitutions. Now men are to be made righteous 
by devotion to the Lord our Eighteousuess. He 
unmasks all hollow ceremonial, upholds all right 
observance ; He sharply rebukes the misuse of 
precepts as instruments of the hardness of heart 
that would shut out the mercy of God. All the 

179 



180 THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY 

evils of institutional religion are rebuked by His 
perfect life. Following Him we are saved. Liv- 
ing in Hini, the animal in us can become truly 
spiritualized. Xourished by Hini, as the branch 
by the vine, we not only have life, but abundant 
life. 

The Vine is the most full and expressive of all 
the figures by which we try to define the rela- 
tionship of our Lord to us. Some are more 
tender, as the Bridegroom, and the Good Shep- 
herd ; some express His understanding of us, as 
Friend, and Elder Brother ; others suggest the 
conflict ) Captain of our Salvation, and Leader ; 
we also feel Him to be our King who governs, 
our Lord who provides and directs. These can 
scarcely be called figures, they so closely express 
facts. They are of that high order of symbol, 
where words approach most nearly to immaterial 
relations. 

But the Vine is ever a mystical figure ; sug- 
gestive of vital communion with the Love that 
passeth knowledge, by which we receive abun- 
dant life ; the foliage, the blossom, and the fruit. 

We must have the icill so to abide. As we 
prepare our hearts to meet Him, as we open the 
new year of discipleship, the Church bids us go 
down to the very springs of conscious life and 
" stir up our wills.'' Isot only the heart, warmly 
affectionate, but forgetful ; not only the mind 
which can see the way but is helpless to enter 
into it ; but the will is the point of departure 
from the lower life, it is the spring of conduct.. 



THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY 181 

What our mind chooses to dwell upon is the 
measure of the conduct of our thoughts. What 
our lips say is the measure of our control of ex- 
pression. What we do is the measure of our love 
for others, for no act but has its effect upon the 
rest of humanity, since we are members one of 
another. 

This quickening of our wills is the subject of 
our heartfelt prayer to-day. We know that an 
overmastering love of God can impel the will 
unconsciously, making it possessed by the need 
to do what love dictates. Something of this 
Spencer meant when he said that instinct will 
take the place of deliberation, when we are 
highly enough cultivated morally. When love 
becomes supreme we can attain to the uncon- 
scious willing of the thing which is right. I do 
not think it is rapidity of mental action, but an 
overstepping process, akin to genius in the realm 
of the intellect. 

But, ah me ! how far off we are from that ! 
Day by day we must consider and choose our 
path with utmost circumspection, for everywhere 
there are snares and obstruction in the way. Oh, 
that we might make our life a " highway for our 
God " — in very deed a u Eoad of loving hearts " ! 



When all our emotions are stirred ; when the 
Past comes imperiously claiming attention to its 
many scenes and feelings of the bygone — this im- 
presses me to-day. 

The feelings of the young are like the light 
rippling music of the brook, so sunny, so cheer- 
ing. The feelings of the old are like the many 
brooks gathered into rivers, flowing into oceaus 
of love ; deep, and calm because deep. But their 
overflow is immense, and their drying up would 
be destruction. They rise into clouds, these big 
waters of the soul, they come down to refresh, to 
invigorate, to give plenteousness. 

Growing old is beautiful — if the Bridegroom's 
voice is a constant delight, the touch of the Be- 
loved ever near. 

So this New Year marks for me the close of 
many years of blessedness, and the Past and the 
Future seem a great deep of Love, towards all, 
from all. 



Printed in the United States of America 

182 



I 

if 

l> 



; . 



MAR 5 1913 



